Class 
Book 







Copyright^ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



CONCERNING 



OSTEOPATHY tfp 



A Compilation of Selections 

FROM 

Articles Published in the Professional and 
Lay Press 



With Original Articles on Manner of Treatment and the 
Application of Osteopathic Principles. 



BY 



GEORGE V. WEBSTER, D. O. 



Illustrated 






COPYRIGHT 191© 



G.V. WEBSTER 



PRESS CF 

CRUIKSHANK d. ELLSWORTH 
CARTHAGE. N. Y. 



C.CI.A278495 



K 



4 



PREFACE 



THE purpose of this volume is to reflect 
the position of Osteopathy as a ther- 
apeutic agent in its work of adding to 
the sum total of human happiness by the 
amelioration of physical suffering. 

Little originality of text has been at- 
tempted, but, rather, in the review of the os- 
teopathic literature that has appeared from 
time to time in the professional and other 
publications, an effort has been made to selest 
such articles as seem appropriate for this 
volume. These, in some instances rearranged 
and condensed to omit technicalities, have 
been compiled in a more or less logical order, 
giving the Histories of Surgery and Medi- 
cine, the discovery of Osteopathy, its devel- 
opment as a science, an exposition of its 
theories, some of its practical workings and 
something concerning its founder, Dr. An- 
drew Taylor Still. 

Osteopathy has so increased the sum of 
human comfort and usefulness that a spirit 
of inquiry has been aroused as to just what 
Osteopathy is, what it has done and what 
may be expected of it. In the light of which, 
with a view to preparing a volume which 



may in a measure provide the information 
desired, these pages have been arranged. 

Acknowledgment is here made of the 
courtesy of the several publishers for the 
permission granted of selecting from their 
pages such articles and quotations as appear 
in this book. Where possible, credit has 
been given both to author and to publication, 

G. V. Webster. 
Carthage, N. Y., Dec. t, 1910. 



To Him 

To Whom Health is Wealth 

This Volume is Dedicated 



Contents 



Osteopathy and Truth A. T. Still, M. D., D. O 17 

Journal of Osteopathy 

History of Surgery G. A. Still, M. S., M. D., D. 0._ 21 

Journal of Osteopathy 

History of Medicine C. L. Johnson, D. O 33 

Journal of Osteopathy 

History of Osteopathy.. Asa Willard, D. O 47 

Journal of Osteopathy 

How I Came to Originate Osteopathy 

A. T. Still, M. D., D. O 55 

Ladies Home Journal 

Disease from an Osteopathic View Point 

M. F. Hulett, B. S., D. O 69 

Journal of Osteopathy 

Osteopathic Lesions G. M. Laughlin, M. S., D. O... 79 

Stillonian 
Scientific Proofs 

Proofs that Bonv Lesions Cause Disease 

Louisa Burns, M. S., D. O 85 

Journal of Osteopathy 

In Proof of Osteopathy Asa Willard, D. O 87 

Journal of Osteopathy 

Dr. McConnell's Experiments 89 

Journal of Osteopathy 

Dr. Louisa Burns' Experiments 

G. V. Webster, D. 0..__ 91 

Osteopathy Proved by Dissection 

F. P. Young, A. B., M. D., D. 0._._ 93 

Journal of Osteopathy 

Manner of Treatment... G. V. Webster, D. O 97 

AjDifferentiation 

The Difference Between Osteopathy and Massage 

Asa Willard, D. O....107 
Journal of Osteopathy 

Other Differences A. T. Still, M. D., D. O 109 

Ladies Home Journal 

Reminiscences C. E. Still, D. O... 113 

Bulletin 



Osteopathic Education 

Osteopathic Teaching C. C. Teal, D. 121 

Bulletin 

The Osteopathic College Curriculum 

E. M. Downing, D. O 123 

Metropolitan 

The Difference Between Osteopathic and Medical 
Teaching 125 

Catalogue American School of Osteopathy 1910-1911 

The Growth of Osteopathy 

Then and Now A.'G. Hildreth, D. 0.---131 

Journal of Osteopathy 

The Father of Osteopathy Elbert Hubbard___139 

The Fra 

An Appreciation 

Dr. Andrew Taylor Still 

J. L. Holloway, M, S., D. 0.---147 
Journal of Osteopathy 

Drugs 

Dr. Osier on Drugs 155 

Philadelphia Journal of Osteopathy 
The Evolution of an Osteopath 

E. C. White, M. D., D. O. — 161 
Journal of Osteopathy 

The Germ Theory 

Relation of Osteopathy to the Germ Theory 

R. E. Hamilton, M. Pd., D. 0..-.167 
Journal of Osteopathy 

The Blood 

How Osteopathy Treats the Blood __ 

C. P. McConnell, D. O., M. D.__ 177 
Journal of Osteopathy 

Traumatisms 

Osteopathy in Traumatisms 

E. C. White, M. D., D. 0....185 
Journal of Osteopathy 

A Delicate Question.. 193 

Life 

Use Your Reason 

If Sick, Use Your Reason __S. C. Matthews, D. 0.-..199 
Journal of Osteopathy 



The Application of Osteopathic Principles ._ 

G. V. Webster, D. O..--207 

Diseases of the Nervous System 208 

Diseases of the Digestive System 209 

Diseases of the Respiratory System 212 

Diseases of the Circulatory System 214 

Diseases of the Kidney 216 

Diseases of the Pelvic Organs 217 

Diseases of the Skin 220 

Acute Infectious Diseases 221 

Diseases of the Eye and Ear 223 

Constitutional Diseases 225 

Four Interesting Cases 

Mind Development _231 

New York Times 

Blindness H. S. Bunting, A. B., D.O., M. D 235 

Osteopathic Health 

Pernicious Hiccough J. H. Sullivan, D. O 237 

Osteopathic Physician 

Pachymeningitis L. A. Bumstead, D. O 239 

Bulletin 



"Who puts back into place a fallen bar, 
Or flings a rock out of a traveled road, 
His feet are moving toward the central star — 
His name is whispered in the Gods' abode." 

—Edwin Markham. 




PHOTO BY SOLEM 

ANDREW TAYLOR STILL, M. D., D. O. 
Founder of the Science of Osteopathy 

"I love my fellow man, because I see God in his face and 
in his form." 



L 



Osteopathy and Truth 

By Andrew Taylor Still, M. D., D. O. 

From an Address delivered on his Eightieth Birthday 

(Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy.) 

September, 1908. 

WHILE for years, I fought the battles 
of Osteopathy alone, meeting great 
opposition and vilification, I knew 
I had the truth and that the truth was im- 
mortal and that some day the principles of 
Osteopathy would be hailed with gladness 
throughout the earth. These principles are 
in harmony with the great laws of God as 
seen in Nature. Osteopathy deals with the 
body as a perfect machine which, if kept in 
proper adjustment, nourished and cared for, 
will run smoothly into ripe and useful old 
age. As long as the human machine is in 
order, like the locomotive or any other me- 
chanical product, it will perform the func- 
tion which it should. When every part of the 
machine is correctly adjusted and in perfect 
harmony, health will hold dominion over the 
human organism by laws as natural and im- 
mutable as the laws of gravity. Every living 



organism has within it the power to manu- 
facture and prepare all chemicals and forces 
needed to build and rebuild itself. No mater- 
ial other than nutritious food taken into the 
system in proper quality and quantity can be 
introduced from the outside without detri- 
ment. A proper adjustment of the bony 
framework and the soft structures of man's 
anatomical mechanism means good diges- 
tion, nutrition and circulation; health and 
happiness. 

Osteopathy is not a theory, but a de- 
monstrated fact. You may say there are 
some failures. Yes, who would not expect 
it? We are called to treat people who have 
been poisoned and diseased beyond the 
possibility of anything except a little temp- 
orary relief. Or perhaps the Osteopath is not 
able to apply the knowledge he should have 
gained before being granted a diploma from 
an osteopathic school. This reflects no more 
upon the science of Osteopathy than does the 
farmer who fails upon the science of farm- 
ing. Again many are looking for miracles 
and are disappointed when a few treatments 
fail to bring wonted strength and vigor. 



jfcistory of Surgery 



{Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy.) 
April, 1907. 



Osteopathy has but little use for the knife, but when no 
human skill can avail to save life or limb without knife and 
saw, then we are willing to use anything or any method to 
save that Hie. —A. T. Still. 



History of Surgery 

By Geo. A. Still, M. S., M. D., D. O. 

From an Address to Post-Graduates. 



IF we go back to the earliest known prac- 
tices of the healing art, we find that, in- 
termittently, surgery attains a compara- 
tively high rank in direct proportion to the 
knowledge of anatomy, but that always any 
attempt to change the practice of drug-medi- 
cine from a combination with superstition 
and fanaticism proved unavailing until dur- 
ing the past century. The ancient Egyptians, 
due to the fact that they necessarily learned 
some anatomy from their religious practice 
of embalming all the dead, were considerably 
advanced for their time in the art of surgery 
and they invented many instruments which 
have been revised but not improved upon to- 
day. Their custom, however, of rewarding 
anyone who attempted any originality or 
change in their practice of medicine by send- 
ing the originator to his future home, is too 
well known to review. 

It is to the Greeks that we owe the name 
of surgery or chirurgery. The derivation 
is from two words, meaning ' ' to work ' ' and 
"by hand", one point of significance being 



that the term included all manual treatment, 
even a rough massage which they practiced. 
It is about thirty-two centuries ago that, ac- 
cording to Celsus, Aesculapius, the first au- 
thority on the subject, made his reputation 
and he is generally regarded as the father of 
the science. But very little advance was 
made for six hundred years after his death 
and that of his two sons, whose work, as the 
first recorded army surgeons, is immortalized 
by Homer in his description of the siege of 
Troy. 

During this time there was a school main- 
tained at Cos and a few centuries B. C, a 
post-graduate of the school by the name of 
Hippocrates revised the entire healing art 
and became the so-called "Father of Medi- 
cine. " Considering the fact that neither 
Hippocrates nor any one else of his time 
knew much of anatomy on account of the law 
of both Greeks and Jews that forbade the 
touching of dead bodies as a profanation, he 
seems to have been the greatest niind the 
healing art produced until the present age. 
His works are well worth reading and many 
of his descriptions of the clinical course of 
diseases are classical today. He tried to free 
the healing art of the mass of ignorance, sup- 
erstition and absurdities by which it was 
held down. He tried to separate drugs from 
the divine properties and miraculous charms 
they were supposed to possess. He tried to 
eradicate the idea that drugs could act in any 
way except by simple chemical and physical 

22 



means. In other words, lie tried to place 
drugs on a truly material and physical basis. 
Many of his ideas on hygiene and diet have 
been proven correct in recent times and he 
even recommends what we call massage for 
certain conditions. Although neither he nor 
any other writer, either ancient or modern 
ever approached the germinal idea of osteo- 
pathy until it was originated bv A. T. Still, 
yet many of Hippocrates' arguments against 
certain drugs and the general use of them 
would fill several pages of g;ood osteopathic 
literature. 

He was handicapped, however, as stated, 
by the lack of knowledge of the internal an- 
atomy, and at that time, Harvey's epoch- 
making discovery of the circulation of the 
blood was many centuries away. In fact, the 
anatomical knowledge of the circulation was 
so poor that styptics and cautery were used 
instead of ligatures to stop bleeding wounds. 
It seems almost unbelievable that with all 
the chances to study, at least the blood ves- 
sels, in the wounds of the innumerable wars 
of the times, the discovery of the circulation 
remained for a post-graduate student in the 
Royal College of Physicians in 1616 A. D.and 
similarly it seems remarkable that it remain- 
ed for Osteopathy to be given to the world in 
1874. But this does not alter facts in either 
case and the arguments of some individuals 
that, were there anything in Osteopathy, it 
would have been discovered long ago, is dis- 
proven all through history. 

23 



For several centuries, between the death 
of Hippocrates and the life of Galen, nothing 
of note occurred except a few sporadic in- 
ventions, such as abdominal trocars for as- 
cites, the speculum, and an instrument for 
the crushing of vesical calculi, each of which 
has been re-invented in modern times with 
great credit to the men who had re-discover- 
ed these various instruments in the old Greek 
books. 

Claudius Galenus, the first real anatom- 
ist, was a post-graduate from the University 
of Alexandria and when he came to Rome, 
during the second century, he found the heal- 
ing art in practically the same condition of 
superstition and ignorance as did Hippo- 
crates. He, however, soon obtained a great 
reputation as a lecturer on anatomy and as a 
practitioner, for which he was rewarded by 
being driven out of Rome by the regular 
practitioners and the local medical board. 

Galen's anatomy was, unfortunately for 
many details, learned entirely from lower an- 
imals such as apes, due to the still existing 
superstition against dissection. He records 
with great pride that he had studied osteol- 
ogy from two real human skeletons in his 
post-graduate course in Alexandria. Al- 
though crude in many ways, this simian an- 
atomy of Galen's, as applied to humans, was 
so far superior to any other anatomical work 
that, over a thousand years later, anatomists 
found it almost impossible to get any fact 
believed that opposed Galen's ideas. One of 

24 






the strong arguments against Harvey's cir- 
culation of the blood was the fact that Galen 
claimed that it flowed and ebbed like a tide. 
Once established as an authority, it took 
many radical discoveries to convince the 
profession that he was not infallible and that 
anything he said could possibly be wrong. 

Through the dark ages, up to the sixteenth 
century, nothing of importance occurred ex- 
cept the reversion of science to a state of 
superstition and ignorance which marked its 
lowest depth since history began. In this 
century, Vesalius completely revised Galen's 
work and gave the world the first real know- 
ledge of human anatomy from human dis- 
sections. Vesalius' work precipitated many 
other discoveries although he himself was 
forced by his medical brethren to resign 
from the University of Padua, as the usual 
reward of too ranch advancement. 

Quite prominent among contemporary 
anatomists were Fallopius, a post-graduate 
and teacher at the University of Padua and 
Eusta chius, also a post-graduate and teacher 
in Rome. 

With the added knowledge of anatomy, 
surgery took a great revival and Ambrose 
Pare, the great Frenchman, gave it particu- 
lar stimulus by changing the methods of 
hemostasis from styptics and red hot irons to 
simple ligatures. Nothing shows the inabil- 
ity of most humans to see palpable truths 
more than that it remained for the sixteenth 
century to produce a man with sense enough 



x 



V 



to tie the arteries instead of cauterizing 
them, in spite of the fact that more than half 
of the healing art had been treatment of 
wounds. Pare was rewarded by the medical 
board of Paris by being forced to deny most 
of his original ideas or leave town. 

The latter part of the sixteenth century 
gave to the world a brilliant genius whose 
work was by far the most important up to his 
time. It was due to his work that the steady 
advance toward the height of today began 
for the healing art. 

In the same school that Vesalius had 
been forced to leave Harvey took a post- 
graduate course after having completed the 
regular course in the University of Cam- 
bridge. Italy, with her many universities, 
was then the scientific center of the world 
and it was but natural for this young Eng- 
lishman to go there for the finishing touches 
of his education. After several years there, 
he returned home and entered the Eoyal Col- 
lege in London where he was made a Fellow. 
Here it was that he completed his work, al- 
though it was twelve years after he wrote 
his memorable lecture on the circulation of 
the blood that he delivered it. He seemed to 
realize how the world would take it, and 
particularly how his ethical friends would 
take it. He seemed to realize that people 
didn't care whether or not their blood flowed 
and ebbed like a tide, but that, believing it 
did, they would make it hard for any one 
who tried to revolutionize their ideas and 

26 



that his friends in the college would quote 
Galen to him and compel him to leave the 
school. Finally he nerved himself to it and 
was in no wise disappointed in its reception. 
He received all he expected and was burned 
in effigy by his fellow practitioners in addi- 
tion, but in spite of this he had many follow- 
ers, especially among the younger students 
of the university. Years after his death, his 
ideas were generally accepted and now the 
showing of the circulation in the web of a 
frog's foot is a part of the public school 
course and, in the halls where at the close of 
his lecture on the afternoon of April 17th, 
1616, he was almost mobbed by the assem- 
blage cf fellow practitioners, there is an- 
nually a lecture given by the ablest scientist 
obtainable in the world, on the subject, 
"The Growth of Truth." 

Last year (1906) the lecture was given 
by Dr. Wm. Osier and, in commenting on the 
apparent inability of the average human to 
accept any new truths, any radical deviations 
from fixed ideas and established standards, 
he said, "Sooner or later — insensibly, uncon- 
sciously — the iron yoke of conformity is up- 
on our necks ; and in our minds as in our bod- 
ies, the force of habit becomes irresistible. 
From our teachers and associates, from our 
reading, from the social atmosphere about 
us, we catch the beliefs of the day and they 
become ingrained; part of our nature. For 
most of us this happens in the haphazard 
process we call education and it goes on just 

27 



as long as we retain any mental receptivity. 
It was never better expressed than in the 
famous lines that occurred to Henry Sedg- 
wick in his sleep: 

'We think so because all other people think 
so; 

Or because — or because — after all, we do 
think so; 

Or because we were told so and think we 
must think so; 

Or because we once thought so and still 
think we think so; 

Or because, having thought so, we think 
we will think so.' 

In departing from any settled opinion 
or belief, the variation, the change, the break 
with custom may come gradually; and the 
way is usually prepared. But the final break 
is made, as a rule, by some one individual, 
the masterless man of Kipling's splendid al- 
legory who sees with his own eyes and, with 
an instinct or genius for truth, escapes from 
the routine in which his fellows live. But 
he often pays dearly for his boldness. A cer- 
tain psychologist tells us that the pain of a 
new idea is one of the greatest pains known 
to human nature. It is, as people sav, so up- 
setting; it makes you think that, after all, 
your favorite notions may be wrong, your 
firmest beliefs ill-founded; it is certain that 
till now, there was no place alloted in your 
mind to the new and startling inhabitant. 
Now that it has gained an entrance, you do 
not at once see which of your old ideas it 

28 



will not turn out, with which of them it can 
be reconciled and with which it is at essen- 
tial enmity. It is on this account that the 
man who expresses a new idea is very apt 
to be abused and ill-treated. ' ' 

And commenting still further, he points 
out how the great discoverers are often hu- 
man (or inhuman) themselves and often in- 
tolerant to other new ideas and shows Har- 
vey's opposition to some new theories later. 

From Harvey's time until 1874, many 
advances were made, but few individuals 
stand out prominently in the time when sani- 
tation, clean surgery and anesthetics were 
developed. There is a great list of names 
each adding his share, but the onlv one that 
deserves a place with Harvey is a man we 
seldom hear mentioned and one the medical 
world has not yet deigned to honor. Up until 
1828 the power of the drug theory in the 
treatment of disease had its strongest point 
in the fact that drugs were considered to 
have some supernatural powers. Up to that 
date no chemist had ever prepared any or- 
ganic compound in the laboratory and it was 
considered that all substances coming from 
plant or animal life were imbued with and 
could only be formed by the so-called "vis 
vitalis ' ' or vital force, a mysterious unknown 
power that increased the superstition in re- 
gard to herbs and other plants to such an ex- 
tent that no attempt to consider the drugs 
from a chemical or physical basis was made. 

One can hardly realize what a hold the 

29 



eveV fe?£iT ^ peopIe when 
supernatural ^Sl?? 84 .^ «S 
to all orgaaic compounl a D !, aryi11 ^ de ^ees, 
alchemist had ever be en a hU i D ° chemist or 
s^gle oae of them. Trulv It t0 ^besize a 
ration between chemist™ ^ Was a sepa- 
" fie wonder Smlvf d ™? S and * 
faith in drags still holds th^ 80 ^' bIiad 
the dawn of history un t f S Whm f « 
™ew that the ffrearJto+ • 828 > eve ry one 
was in all organic C0 S er !° US "^1 force'' 
not exist witfoS it °wZkr "* ?"* cou bi 
f emist in Berlin wasX L ^^'^adnate 
sized urea from so ca l £ * Who s * vnt be- 
ponnds, ammonia and cya^ 1 * ^ com - 
p belief of the ages £ £ «*•""? broke 
His work created little stir 1+ ' Vls . vi talis." 
°ept m the chemieal Z i J at the tim e, ex- 
resultant from Kave bl and the ^nges 
opinion when tL I* ^ m quiet > but in mv 
fnd the healfng tt is writi^ ^^S 
this studious chemist Jin l e \ the name of 
fortance in the l£? of thL "H. 8 eC ,° nd in ™- 
troy the superstition 5 T Wh ° £ eI P ed d <«- 
^e wonder that peonle can hT ° ftent ™es, 
continue an unreasoning ? fe S ° bIlnd as to 
cmes; but when we consfdfff m their me ^- 
People have held t« I r °7 much ] °nger 
change was not nearly so tf , Where *e 
even rather surprising Zt!™ 1 ' lt seem « 
with the new ideas S S ° man ^ tak « «P 



30 



jfci'story ofJTfedicine 



(Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy. ) 
March, 1909 



Of God, man has learned nothing; of his work, very 
little.—^. T. Still. 



History of Medicine 

By C. L. Johnson, D. O. 

TO the Greek Physician, Hippocrates, is 
attributed the act of formulating the 
first system of therapeutics. Hippo- 
crates was born on the Island of Cos about 
460 years before Christ. His system of treat- 
ing disease later acquired the name of Allo- 
pathy, the theory of Allopathy being that, 
"Opposites cure opposites." Hippocrates 
knew so little about the human body, 
the greatest of the Divine Architect's 
handiwork, that he was not aware of 
the circulation of the blood. It was more 
than two thousand years after his time that 
physicians learned that the blood and lymph 
circulated in the human body. It was not 
until A. D. 1616 that William Harvey, an 
English physician of high standing first 
made known to the world this discovery. In 
April of this year, while lecturing at the Col- 
lege of Physicians in London, "on the 16th, 
17th and 18th, he delivered at the college in 
Knightrider Street, near St. Paul's Cathe- 
dral, the lectures in which he made the first 
public statement of his thoughts on the cir- 
culation of the blood.' ' 

We are informed that Harvey made this 

33 



important discovery some time before this 
public announcement, but hesitated to make 
it known, fearing persecution. Does not this 
indicate the ignorance of the world even at 
this late date, relative to the construction 
and powers of the human body? 

Early Ignorance of Anatomy 

Let us return for a moment to the sec- 
ond century, about six hundred years after 
Hippocrates ? time, when the development of 
anatomy seems to have had its real begin- 
ning. W. Whewell, in his "History of In- 
ductive Sciences", tells us that, "In the ear- 
liest conceptions which men entertained of 
their power of moving their own members, 
they probably had no thought of any me- 
chanism or organization by which this was 
effected. The foot and the hand, no less than 
the head, were seen to be endowed with life; 
and this pervading life seemed sufficiently 
to explain the power of motion in each part 
of the frame without its being held necessary 
to seek out a special seat of the will, or in- 
struments by which its impulses were made 
effective. But the slightest inspection of dis- 
sected animals showed that their limbs were 
composed of a curious and complex collection 
of cordage and communications of various 
kinds, running along and connecting the 
bones of the skeleton. These cords and com- 
munications we now distinguish as muscles, 
veins, arteries, etc.; and among these, we as- 
sign to muscles the office of moving the parts 

34 



to which they are attached, as cords move the 
parts of a machine. 

' ' Though this action of the muscles on 
the bones may now appear very obvious, it 
was, probably, not at first discerned. And 
even Hippocrates of Cos, the most celebrated 
physician of antiquity, is held to have had no 
distinct conception of such organs. ' ' Thus, we 
may form a further conception of Hippo- 
crates ' knowledge of the human body, or 
rather his lack of knowledge. Whewell adds, 
' 'Those who professed to study physiology 
and medicine were, for the most part, stud- 
ious only to frame some general system of 
abstract principles which might give an ap- 
pearance of connection and profundity to 
their tenets." 

Mediaeval Prescriptions 

Galen flourished about this time and be- 
came one of the leading authorities of the 
physicians for many centuries to follow. 
Whewell states that, "Galen was from 
the first highly esteemed as an anatomist." 
E. A. King* in "Mediaeval Medicine," 
says, " * * * it is not surprising that 
Medical Science should have stagnated 
and that Galen and Discorides were per- 
mitted to lay down the law in the six- 
teenth century as they had done since the 
beginning of the Christian era." He adds, 
"Some light is thrown upon the state of 
things herefrom resulting by a work trans- 
lated from the German in the year 1561, and 

35 



entitled * A most excellent and perfect homish 
Apothecarye or physicke booke, for all grefes 
and diseases of the bodye.' The first chapter 
is ' Concerning the Head and his partes'. 
' Galen sayeth * the head is divided into f oure 
partes : in the fore part hath blood the domin- 
ion; Cholera in the ryght syde, Melancholy 
in the left syde and Flegma bareth rule in the 
hindermost part. If the head doth ache so 
sore by reason of a runninge that he can not 
snoife his nose, bath hys fete in a depe tub 
until the knees and give him this medicine # 
* # which riseth into hys head and dryeth 
hys moyst braynes. Galen sayeth that he 
that hath payne in the hindermost part of 
hys head, the same must be let blood under 
the chynne, specially on the ryght syde; also 
were it good oft to burn the heyre of a man 
before his nose. The braynes are greved 
many ways; many there are whom the head 
whyrleth so sore that he thinketh the earth 
turneth upsyde doune: Cummin refraineth 
the whyrling, comforteth the braynes and 
maketh them to grow agayne ; or he may take 
the braynes of a hogge, rost the same upon a 
grede yron and cut slices therefrom and lay 
to the greved parts. ' ' ' The reader will note 
from the above the nature of Galen 's theories 
and conceptions of disease and the cure 
thereof. King also states that, " * * * in 
medical works of the middle ages we meet 
constantly with such prescriptions as these: 
1 Take the right eye of a f rogg, lap it in a 
piece of russet cloth and hang it about the 

36 



neck; it cureth the right eye if it be inflamed 
or bleared. And if the left eye be greved, do 
the like by the left eye of the said frogg.' 
Again, 'The skin of a Kaven's heel is good 
against the gout, but the right heel skin 
must be laid upon the right foot if that be 
gouty, and the left upon the left', etc." And 
we have similar prescriptions laid down by 
Pliny, whose authority at this time was 
probably second only to Galen's. This takes 
us briefly up to the 17th century, when Har- 
vey discovered the circulation of the blood 
and soon after, 1647, Pecquet discovered the 
lymphatic circulation. This discovery, like 
Harvey's, was stoutly opposed for a time by 
the other physicians, but was destined to 
stand upon the rock of truth, as it proved to 
be an incontrovertible fact. 

Beginning of Modern Physiology 

Huxley states that the dawn of modern 
physiological science be^an with the teach- 
ings of Descartes in the 17th Century. And 
he quotes Descartes as savins-. "It is true 
that as medicine is now practiced, it contains 
little that is very useful; but without any 
desire to depreciate, I am sure there is no one, 
even among the professional men, who will 
not declare that all we know is very little 
compared with that which remains to be 
known." "And" says Huxley, "the greater 
part of the gigantic progress which has 
been made in the present century is a justifi- 
cation of the prevision of Descartes. For it 

37 



consists essentially in resolution of the gros- 
ser organs of the living body into physico- 
chemical mechanisms. 'I shall try to explain 
our whole bodily machinery in such a way 
that it will be no more necessary for us to 
suppose that the soul produces such move- 
ments as are not voluntary than it is to think 
that there is in a clock a soul which causes it 
to show the hours. ' These words of Descartes 
might be taken as a motto for any modern 
treatise on physiology. ' ' 

The First Medical Nihilist 

Let us quote briefly from Sydenham, pro- 
claimed the "Father of Eational Medicine/' 
who lived near the close of the seventeenth 
century — "If only one person in every age 
had accurately described and consistently 
cured but a single disease, and made known 
his secret, physic would not be where it is 
now; but we long since forsook the ancient 
method of cure founded upon the knowledge 
of conjunct causes, in so much that the art, 
as at this day practiced, is rather the art of 
talking about diseases than of curing them." 
Dr. John Brown in his medical writings re- 
fers to Sydenham as, "the first man who ap- 
plied to his profession the Baconian princi- 
ples of interpreting and serving nature/ ' 
And that, no doubt, was the most important 
feature of his thought. The more we learn of 
the human body, and the laws of nature rela- 
tive thereto, the more successful and satis- 
factory our work as physicians will be. 

38 



Reign of Bleeding and Purging 

Up until the close of the 17th century, 
the prevailing theory as to the pathology of 
disease was that diseases depended upon 
certain chemical changes in the composition 
of the blood and other fluids of the body, ra- 
ther than upon a deranged condition of the 
solid constituents of the body. The former 
theory is known as "Humeral Pathology/ ' 
At the beginning of the 18th century, Hoff- 
man, Stahl and others exploded the humeral 
theory of disease and introduced the saner 
and more correct theory of solidism or the 
seat of pathological conditions in the solids 
of the body. Sir William Hamilton cites 
an example of the humeral therapeutics in 
the treatment of Louis XIII. "Within a sin- 
gle year this theory inflicted on that unfor- 
tunate monarch above a hundred cathartics 
and more than forty bleedings. During the 
fifteen centuries of Humerism, ' ' he continues 
"how many millions of lives did medicine 
cost mankind ?" Venesection raged during 
the Humeral Age and, as Hamilton adds, 
"Venesection was copiously employed to 
renew the blood, to attenuate its consisten- 
cy, or to remove a part of the morbific matter 
with which it was impregnated: and cathar- 
tics, sudorifics, diuretics were largely admin- 
istered with a similar intent. Their whole 
therapeutic was directed to change the qual- 
ity or quantity of the blood. Nor was this 
murderous treatment limited to the actual 

39 



period of disease. Seven or eiarht annual 
bleedings and as many purgations, such was 
the common regimen, the theory to insure 
the continuance of health; and the two-fold 
depletion, still customary at spring and fall, 
among the peasantry of many European 
countries is a remnant of the once universal 
practice. But under the investigations and 
teachings of Hoffman and his colleagues, 
the humeral theory was relegated more or 
less to the past, and for all practical purposes 
to oblivion. In this connection, we must not 
omit the name of the celebrated Virchow who 
had so much to do with the complete revolu- 
tion in pathology. But Virchow lived after 
Hoffman's time and gave his valuable ser- 
vices to the medical world during the latter 
part of the 19th century. 

Influence of Nerves First Recognised 

J. Thompson, in his account of Hoffman, 
observes that, "The great and permanent 
merits of Hoffman (1660-1742) as a medical 
philosopher, undoubtedly consisted in his 
having perceived and pointed out more clear- 
ly than any of his predecessors, the extensive 
and powerful influence of the nervous system 
in modifying and regulating, at least, if not 
in producing, all the phenomena of the or- 
ganic as Yfell as the animal functions in the 
human economy, and more particularly in his 
application of this doctrine to the explana- 
tion of disease. He was accordingly led to 

40 



regard all those alterations in the structure 
and functions of this economy, which consti- 
tute the state of disease, as having their prim- 
ary origin in affections of the nervous system, 
etc." Following closely this complete 
overthrow of the fundamental principle of 
the medical profession with regard to the 
pathology of disease, a principle which had 
ruled the treatment of diseases since the days 
of Hippocrates, was the origination of the 
system of medical treatment known as Home- 
opathy. This was introduced by Samuel 
Hahneman, a noted German physician, who 
conceived the theory of curing disease by ad- 
ministering to the body such drugs as would 
produce in a well body symptoms similar to 
those presented by the diseased body. In 
other words, his theory was exactly opposite 
to that of Hippocrates, and was based on the 
ground that "Like cures like." Hahneman 
succeeded in gaining a large following. 

Structure Ignored. 

All along in our perusal of the History of 
Medical Science, we find ourselves confused 
with the ever changing theories and methods 
of treating diseases. Not only do we learn 
the futility of various methods employed, 
but we are compelled to admit of the unques- 
tionable sacrifice of health and human lives 
to the mistaken and pernicious methods of 
attempting to relieve disease. New theories 
that conflict with or entirely abrogate the old 
are continually met with and, whatever ra- 

41 



tionality is discerned seems to arise in pro- 
portion to the greater amount of attention 
that is given to seeking more knowledge of 
the construction and functioning of the hu- 
man body and closer observation of Nature 
and Nature's laws. Throughout the history 
of medicine, we find a great deal of theoriz- 
ing with regard to disease and experimenting 
with drugs but, until a very recent date, very 
little attention given to the study of the hu- 
man body so far as the treatment of disease 
is concerned. It would seem almost incred- 
ible that such learned men as existed in 
earlier times should be so utterly ignorant of 
the construction and functions of the very 
object in behalf of which they spent the 
greater part of their life's work; such a 
wonderfully interesting subject, too, as the 
human body. The first great anatomist, John 
Hunter, lived in the 18th century. Hunter 
gave valuable aid to physiologists and placed 
surgery upon a scientific basis. Without 
doubt, his work along the lines of anatomy 
and surgery had much to do with the impet- 
us which arose to know more about the hu- 
man body. A seed of thirst for truth had 
been planted in virgin soil, as it were, which 
could not be satisfied until vastly more of the 
truth should be learned. Along with this im- 
petus, arose a tendency to lessen the amount 
of drugging and to give more attention to 
hygiene, dietetics and proper caring for the 
human body, a fact which is supported by 

42 






the writings and text-books of the eminent 
physicians of today. Since Hunter's time,we 
have been favored with many able anat- 
omists and close students of the human body 
and its relation to disease. Today more than 
ever before, is there a craving for greater 
knowledge of the wonderful construction and 
functioning of this great machine, the human 
body. 



Jfcistory of Osteopathi/ 



(Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy. ) 
November, 1909 



The philosopher begins an ignorant man, knows this to 
be his condition and uses the many methods that occur to 
his mind to better his condition by a knowledge of demon- 
strated truths. -A. T. Still. 



History of Osteopathy 

By Asa Willard, D. O. 

THE early history of Osteopathy is the 
history of one man, its founder, Dr. A. 
T. Still. Its principles were first put 
forth by him in 1874. 

Dr. Still was a regular practicing phy- 
sician and during the war, an army surgeon. 
He was born in Virginia, his father being a 
minister. The family moved west and Dr. 
Still, during his early life, experienced all 
the perils and hardships of pioneer life. 

Dr. Still was always of an observing, in- 
vestigating turn of mind. An incident illus- 
trative of this is told of his boyhood days. 
After playing hard, he was often troubled 
with a headache. One day he lay down under 
the swing tree, with the back of his neck 
slung in the swing rope which almost touch- 
ed the ground. He fell asleep. When he 
awoke, he found that his headache was gone. 
They usually lasted him a good while and 
he got to thinking of it. After that when he 
had a headache, he went to the swing rope. 
Of course, all he knew about the procedure 
then or for years afterward was that the 
headache stopped. The treatment, however, 

47 



was rational and its result can be explained 
physiologically. The pressure of the rope 
simply caused the tissue at the back of the 
skull to relax and allow the congesting blood 
to flow from the head. 

In the early 70 's, Dr. Still had three 
children die from spinal meningitis, in spite 
of the employment of every means known to 
medical science at that time. This experience 
seemed to thoroughly confirm him in the 
view that something was lacking in the ac- 
cepted mode of treating disease. He began 
devoting almost his whole time to the study 
of the human body and investigating along 
lines that suggested themselves to him. He 
dissected animals and dug the bones from 
old Indian graves to get material for his 
study. His "bag of bones" came to be a joke 
throughout that part of Kansas in which 
state the Still family then lived. 

He used to blindfold himself and stand 
with his back to a table on which, in a pile 
were all of the 200 bones of the human body, 
each marked as to where in the human body 
it belonged. As the bones were handed to 
him, one at a time, he would examine them 
with his fingers and call out where in the 
skeletal framework each belonged. He stud- 
ied the bones and practiced this until he 
could, by the sense of touch, distinguish and 
put in its proper place every bone in the 
body. 

In his autobiography, he says of his 

48 



study of the body of man, "By the use of 
the knife and the microscope I have traced 
for these many years, the wonderful and per- 
fect work therein found, carefully inspecting 
every fiber, gland and all parts of the brain; 
I have observed the construction of the parts 
and their uses." 

Great thoughts do not come spontan- 
eously, but the basic idea may, after years of 
study, come in a moment to the investigator. 
In 1874 Dr. Still grasped the pivotal truth of 
Osteopathy and that year he calls the birth 
year of the science. He began devoting his 
whole time to the development of his science 
and as he did so he experienced that derision 
and ridicule which has always been the lot of 
those whose discoveries have meant radical 
departure from the established ideas. 

There was a time when nothing was 
known of the circulation of the blood. When 
in the seventeenth century, Harvey discover- 
ed and proclaimed how the blood circulated 
from the heart through arteries and veins he 
was designated as "crazy" by his medical 
brethren and ostracised from medical socie- 
ties. Such was the treatment accorded Dr. 
Still. 

His medical friends sneered at him an4 
when he made efforts to explain to them his 
discovery they refused to listen to his 
"crazy" talk. He lost practice, his friends 
fell away from him. He was well to do and 
had accumulated considerable property in 

49 



Kansas. He and his brother had donated 480 
acres of land for the site of Baker University 
at Baldwin, Kans. When he asked the privi- 
lege of explaining Osteopathy at the Univer- 
sity, the doors of the structure he had helped 
to build were closed against him. He grad- 
ually lost his property and with his family 
moved to Missouri. For about ten years he 
traveled over the state visiting patients in 
various places. At times, he actually 
wanted for life's necessities. He finally lo- 
cated in Kirksville, Mo., and practiced there 
and throughout the surrounding country. 
His work was almost entirely confined to 
the poor and very little of it was paid for. 
Every now and then, rumors of some wonder- 
ful cures which he had performed pervaded 
the community. From among those whom he 
had cured, he had loyal friends, but in the 
main the community referred to him as 
" that old quack, Still" and they attributed 
what success he had to faith cure, mesmer- 
ism, etc. "Doctor," a lady said to him one 
morning, "Now, be honest with me; isn't 
your success due to hypnotism?" "Well, 
madam, it may be," replied the doctor, "IVe 
set three hips already this morning." 

In spite of the aspersion and ridicule 
heaped upon him and the difficulty of making 
both ends meet, he was always cheerful and 
optimistic and eternally confident of the 
world's ultimate recognition of Osteopathy. 
There was always a oneness of purpose in his 
work. This, combined with a heart filled with 

50 



charity, seemed entirely to exclude all 
thoughts of money matters or personal ag- 
grandizement. 

I remember an incident in my own ac- 
quaintance with him which was illustrative 
of this and which occurred a few years after 
he had started his school. I was sitting with 
him on his back porch and with an open an- 
atomy in his lap and a skeleton at his side, 
he was explaining to me some point of the 
bodily structure. A little crippled girl on 
crutches came around the corner of the 
house. She was a charity patient. "Oh, yes, 
I want to look after this little girl. Now you 
see" — and he then entered into an explana- 
tion of her condition and how it could be cor- 
rected. While he was talking, his wife came 
to the door and said, "Pa, Senator — 's wife 
is waiting for you in the parlor/' "All 
right, in a minute,' ' said the Doctor, and, 
with one hand on the little girl's back, he 
went on explaining. After a while,concluding 
with, "Now we'll go over to the school," 
he started for the school, having to be re- 
minded again of the lady who was waiting 
for him in the house. He had become so inter- 
ested in the little crippled charity patient 
that he had forgotten all about the United 
States Senator's wife whose husband was and 
is one of the most influential men in the coun- 
try. 

Hard work, persistence and self-sacrifice 
finally won. Occasionally some person of 
prominence became interested. His theory 

51 



was so rational that these brought others. In 
spite of the fact that his patients were almost 
entirely from those claimed as hopelessly in- 
curable by the old method of healing, some 
of his cures were marvelous. People began 
to be attracted from distances and the * ' Old 
Doctor" with his two older sons, Charlie and 
Harry, soon had as much practice as they 
could attend to. 

In 1892, he established a school. Many 
of his friends tried to deter him, some 
thinking his ability was a gift and 
could not be imparted to others. Others said 
that he was a fool. After all these years of 
struggle, he ought to hold on to his secret 
himself and become wealthy. But money was 
the last thing about which Dr. Still thought. 
After the establishment of the school, al- 
though opposition by no means ceased, re- 
cognition came more rapidly. 

Today, Dr. Still is a hale old gentleman, 
eighty-one years of age. Unlike the vast ma- 
jority of the great who have made revolution- 
ary discoveries of benefit to mankind, he has 
lived to see the fruit of his labors — to see his 
science generally recognized. In the little 
city of Kirksville where he lives, the citizens 
refer affectionately to him as the "Old Doc- 
tor. ' ' He is a scientist and a man. When he 
comes to lay down his staff, it can be said of 
him, as it was said of another, "Were every 
one to whom he did some loving service to 
bring a blossom to his grave, he would sleep 
beneath a wilderness of flowers. ,, 

52 



jfcow S Came to 
Originate Osteopathy 



{Reprinted by permission from The Ladies Home Journal. ) 
January, 1908 



Tradition has been the everlasting parent of tyranny. — 
A. 7. Still. 



How I Came to Originate 
Osteopathy 

By Andrew Taylor Still, M. D., D. O. 

MY first awakening to the principles 
which today have culminated in the 
science called " Osteopathy' ' was 
made when I was about ten years old. I was 
a boy on my father's farm in Macon County, 
Missouri. I was subject to sick headaches, 
and while suffering from one of these attacks 
one day I was instinctively led to make a 
swing of my father's plowline between two 
trees. My head hurt too much to make 
swinging comfortable. I let the line down to 
within eight or ten inches of the ground,, 
threw the end of a blanket on it, and lay 
down on the ground, using the line for a 
swinging pillow. To my surprise I soon be- 
gan to feel easier, and went to sleep. In a lit- 
tle while I got up with headache and fever 
gone. This discovery interested me, and af- 
ter that, whenever I felt my headache spells 
coming on, I would "swing my neck", as I 
called it. 

The next incident which gave me cause 

55 



for thought occurred when I contracted dy- 
sentery, or flux, with copious discharges mix- 
ed with blood. There were chilly sensations, 
high fever, backache and cold abdomen. It 
seemed to me my back would break, the mis- 
ery was so great. A log was lying in my fa- 
ther's yard. In the effort to get comfort I 
threw myself across it on the small of my 
back and made a few twisting motions,which 
probably restored the misplaced bones to 
their normal position, for soon the pain be- 
gan to leave, my abdomen began to get warm, 
the chilly sensation disappeared, and that 
was the last of the flux. 

Mill Machinery Aroused Mv Interest in Hu- 
man Machinery 

My father, as a pioneer, was a farmer, a 
mill owner, a minister and a doctor. I stud- 
ied and practiced medicine with him. 

Pioneer life on a Western farm in those 
days was one in which all the inventive 
powers one might possess were given ample 
chance to show forth. There was very little 
to buy and less money to buy it with. My 
father had a grist and saw mill run by water, 
in the working of which I became very much 
interested. Later, I bought an interest in a 
steam sawmill, and took a course of instruct- 
ion in milling machinery for practical pur- 
poses. 

As I studied this mill machinery I got 
my first clear idea of the machinery of the 

56 



human body. My mind invariably associat- 
ed and compared the machinery of the mill 
with the machinery of the human being: 
with the drive-wheels, pinions, cups, arms 
and shafts of the human, with their forces 
and supplies, framework, attachment by lig- 
ament and muscle, the nerve and blood sup- 
ply. "How" and "where" the motor nerves 
receive their power and motion, how the 
sensory and nutrient nerves act in their 
functions, their source of supply, their work 
done in health, in the parts obstructed, parts 
and principles through which they passed to 
perform their duties of life — all this study in 
human mechanics awoke with new vigor 
within me. I believed that something abnor- 
mal could be found which, by tolerating a 
temporary or permanent suspension of the 
blood in arteries or veins, would produce the 
effect which was called disease. 

With this thought in mind came such 
questions as: What is disease? What is fev- 
er? Is fever an effect, or is it a being as is 
commonly described by medical authors? I 
took disease to be an effect, experimenting 
and proving the position, being sustained 
each time by Nature's response in the affirm- 
ative. 

Early in the sixties I took a course of 
instruction in the Kansas City School of Phy- 
sicians and Surgeons, studying such branch- 
es as were taught in the medical schools of 
that day. I took up the regular practice of 

57 



an allopathic physician. I was called a good 
doctor 
"The Proper Study of Mankind is Man" 

During all this time I had devoted a 
large part of my time to the study of anat- 
omy, which attracted me strongly. I read 
every book on the subject I could wi hold of, 
but my chief source of study was the bock of 
Nature. I found myself more and more be- 
lieving that "the proper study of mankind is 
man," and the best method to pursue it is to 
dissect and study the body itself. The skin- 
ing of wild animals in my youth brought me 
into contact with muscles, nerves and veins. 

The skeletons of the Indians were my 
next study in bones, and I went on making 
numberless experiments with bones until I 
became very familiar with the entire bony 
structure of the human body. Finally, I tried 
an experiment of my own: I made a picture 
or chart of the bones of the whole body, then 
stood blindfolded, or with my back to a table. 
A bone would be handed to me by an asisst- 
ant. I would take it in my hands and by the 
"feel" of it would name it and direct where 
it should be placed on the chart (right or 
Jeft.) I carried this to the extent of even the 
smallest bones of the hands and feet and 
those of the spine, until the chart was filled 
in completely. This I used to do over and over 
again. For not less than twelve months I 
studied bones alone, before taking up Des- 
criptive Anatomy, because I wanted to know 

53 



what a bone is and its use. I became as fa- 
miliar with every bone as I was with the 
words " father' ' and "mother". Of course 
all this meant untiring work, and I have 
hardly expected my students to follow me 
over the entire length of this portion of my 
road. Nevertheless, I believe as strongly to- 
day as ever that the closer they follow this 
road, the better for their patients. They 
must study and know the exact construction 
of the human body, the exact location of 
every bone, nerve, fibre, muscle and organ; 
the origin, the course and flow of all the 
fluids of the body, the relation of each to the 
other and the function it is to perform in 
perpetuating life and health. In addition, 
they must have ability to enable them to de- 
tect the exact location of any and all ob- 
structions to the regular movements of this 
grand machinery of life, and supplement this 
ability with skill to remove all such obstruc- 
tions. 

From this study in bones I went on to 
the study of muscles, ligaments, tissues, ar- 
teries, veins, lymphatics and nerves. 

I began now to feel that I was irresistib- 
ly headed for some road: what road I myself 
knew not. Of one thing I was certain: I was 
getting farther away from the use of medi- 
cines in the treatment of ills and ails. I was a 
physician of the old school in name but not 
in fact. 

I carried on my theories: I practiced 
them wherever I could find people who would 

59 



place confidence in me, until the Civil War 
came on. Then I enlisted and went "to the 
front." 

On resuming my duties as a private 
citizen after the war I took up again the 
study and research of my all-absorbing top- 
ic: how to cure disease without medicine, 
and on June 22, 1874, there came into my 
mind the first clear conception of the prac- 
tical workings of what is now known as the 
Science of Osteopathy. This day I celebrate 
as its birthday. 

One of the First Cases I Treated 

In the autumn of 1874 I was given a 
chance to try my ideas on a case of flux. I 
was walking with a friend on the streets of 
Macon, Missouri, in which town I was visit- 
ing, when I noticed in advance of us a woman 
with three children. I called my friend's at- 
tention to fresh blood that had dripped along 
the street for perhaps fifty yards. We caught 
up with the group and discovered that the 
woman's little boy, about four years old, was 
sick. He had only a calico dress on, and, to 
my wonder and surprise, his legs and feet 
were covered with blood. A glance was 
enough to show that the mother was poor. 
We immediately offered our services to help 
the boy home. I picked him up and placed 
my hand on the small of his back. I found it 
hot, while the abdomen was cold. The neck 
and the back of the head were also very 

60 



warm and the face and nose very cold. This 
set me to reasoning, for up to that time the 
most I knew of flux was that it was fatal in a 
great many cases. I had never before asked 
myself the question: What is flux? I began 
to reason about the spinal cord which gives 
off its motor nerves to the front of the body, 
its sensory to the back; but that gave no clew 
to flux. Beginning at the base of the child's 
brain, I found rigid and loose places in the 
muscles and ligaments of the whole spine, 
while the lumbar portion was very much 
congested and rigid. The thought came to me, 
like a flash, that there might be a strain or 
some partial dislocation of the bones of the 
spine or ribs, and that by pressure I could 
push some of the hot to the cold places and 
by so doing adjust the bones and set free the 
nerve and blood supply to the bowels. On 
this basis of reasoning I treated the child's 
spine, and told the mother to report the next 
day. She came the next morning with the 
news that her child was well. 

There were many cases of flux in the 
town at that time and shortly after, and the 
mother, telling of my cure of the child, 
brought a number of cases to me. I cured 
them all by my own method and without 
drugs. This began to stir up comment, and 
I soon found myself the object of curiosity 
and criticism. 



61 



Why I Started the American School of Os- 
teopathy 

Another case which I was asked to see 
brought upon me still further criticism. A 
young woman was suffering with nervous 
prostration. All hope had been given up by 
the doctors, and the family was so told. Af- 
ter a number of medical councils her father 
came to me and said: "The doctors say my 
daughter cannot live. Will you step in and 
look at her?" I found the young woman in 
bed, and from the twisted manner in which 
her head lay I suspected a partial disloca- 
tion of the neck. On examination I found 
this to be true — one of the upper bones of her 
neck was slipped to one side, shutting off, by 
pressure, the vertebral artery on its way to 
supply the brain. In four hours after I had 
carefully adjusted the bones of her neck 
she was up and out of bed. 

I went through those interesting yet 
trying days deaf to criticism and comment. 
I worked alone, studying, investigating, ex- 
perimenting. 

Gradually people began coming to me in 
increasing numbers, and soon I found that 
my practice was beginning to stow beyond 
the limits of my strength. Several persons, 
seeing my increasing practice, now began to 
urge me to teach them a knowledge of the 
practical workings of my discovery. In the 
early nineties I concluded to teach others the 
principles that underlay my drugless work. 

62 



I realized that I must have help or break 
down. I had four sons and one daughter, 
able-bodied young people, and the thought 
came to me to educate them in this science 
in order that they could assist me in my work. 

I employed the best talent that I could 
find to teach them anatomy, physiology and 
chemistry, teaching them, myself, the prin- 
ciples and practice of my own science. After 
my school had been in running order a short 
time others became interested and asked per- 
mission to join, and the class increased in 
numbers. At the end of the first year I had 
some students who were able to help me in a 
way, and in the course of two years I really 
had assistance. This was the origin of what 
is known today as the American School of 
Osteopathy. 

With the origination of the school came, 
of course, the necessity of a name to desig- 
nate the science, and I chose "Osteopathy." 
I reasoned that the bone, " osteon,' ' was the 
starting point from which I was to ascertain 
the cause of pathological conditions, and I 
combined the "osteo" with "pa thy." 

So "Osteopathy," sketched briefly, was 
launched upon the world. 

Now What, Really, is Osteopathy, 

Many people naturally ask: What is Os- 
teopathy? 

Osteopathy is simply this: The law of 
human life is absolute, and I believe that 
God has placed the remedy for every disease 

63 



within the material house in which the spirit 
of life dwells. I believe that the Maker of 
man has deposited in some part or through- 
out the whole system of the human body 
drugs in abundance to cure all infirmities: 
that all the remedies necessary to health are 
compounded within the human body. They 
can be administered by adjusting the body in 
such manner that the remedies may naturally 
associate themselves together. And I have 
never failed to find all these remedies. At 
times some seemed to be out of reach, but by 
a close study I always found them. So I 
hold that man should study and use only the 
drugs that are found in his own drug-store — 
that is, in his own body. 

Osteopathy is, then, a science built upon 
this principle: that man is a machine, need- 
ing, when diseased, an expert mechanical en- 
gineer to adjust its machinery. It stands for 
the labor, both mental and physical, of the 
engineer, or Osteopath, who comes to correct 
the abnormal conditions of the human body 
and restore them to the normal. Of course, 
"normal" does not simply mean a readjust- 
ment of bones to a normal position in order 
that muscles and ligaments may with free- 
dom play in their alloted places. Beyond all 
this lies the still greater question to be solv- 
ed : How and when to apply the touch which 
sets free the chemicals of life as Nature de- 
signs 1 

Osteopathy to me has but one meaning, 

64 



and that is, that the plan and specification 
by which man is constructed and designed 
shows absolute perfection in all its parts and 
principles. When a competent anatomist (as 
the successful Osteopath must be), in treat- 
ing the human body, follows this plan and 
specification, the result will be a restoration 
of physiological functioning from disease to 
health. 

An Osteopath is only a human engineer 
who should understand all the laws govern- 
ing the human engine and thereby master 
disease. 



^Disease <From an 
Osteopathic View {Point 



^Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy .) 
December, 1906 



God's pay for labor and time is truth and truth only. — 
A. 7. Still. 



Disease From an Osteopa- 
thic View Point. 

By M. F. Hulett, B. S., D. O. 

TEE history of medicine is a record of 
empirical practice upon an all too 
credulous public. Hoping for relief 
we grab at a straw. Promise of cure, though 
without a semblance of reason back of it, 
like the candle light to the moth, lures its 
victims by the thousands heedless of the con- 
sequences. Unfortunately, disease has been 
too little understood — and its remedy less so. 
Too long has it been considered that disease 
is a mysterious, devouring monster, separate 
and distinct from bodily mechanism — an 
invader, usurper on a mission of destruction. 
Very naturally, with this conception as a 
premise, the search for curative measures 
has been largely confined to attempts to dis- 
cover some agency that would drive out, 
absorb or annihilate this grim terror. This 
search is largely the history of medical ther- 
apeutics, its nostrums, its poisonous com- 
pounds, its serums, its germicides and much 
of its surgery, all pointing with unerring aim 
to such a conclusion. Something, however 

69 



has been done in recent years on a more ra- 
tional basis ; but even yet not a small amount 
of this ancient superstition still remains. 

It is a hopeful sign, however, to ob- 
serve that the foundation of this false ther- 
apeutic structure is being undermined — is 
crumbling away. We are searching more 
deeply into the cause and studying less the 
effect (except as it points to a cause) and 
its remedy. It is gratifying to note, too, 
that this change is largely co-existent with 
the origin and development of Osteopathy. 
This science making less prominent the ef- 
fect, the symptom, and being satisfied with 
nothing short of the discovery of a first and 
primary cause, has done more to bring about 
a better understanding of the " human ma- 
chine " in its relation to diseased (or disor- 
dered) conditions than any other one ther- 
apeutic system. Its view point is from an 
entirely different field and we will try to 
prove to you that it has a more rational 
basis. 

In order to understand better this new 
conception, let us for the moment forget all 
about Osteopathy which may, in our individ- 
ual interpretation of its meaning, seem 
vague and indefinable, and without being 
prejudiced, consider in a rational way a few 
well known physiological principles. Bodily 
tissues, muscles, glands, organs, etc., (with- 
out nerves to govern their actions) are inert- 
mere masses of matter, unresponsive and 
lifeless. Every movement of the body is the 

70 



result of muscular contraction — an approxi- 
mation of the different points to which the 
muscle is attached. But the muscle cannot 
contract itself; it has no inherent power to 
act, it lies there dormant until put into mo- 
tion by an independent force. This force, gen- 
erated in the brain, or other subsidiary cen- 
ter of origin, is transmitted along the nerve 
especially created for it to its point of action. 
Without this impulse, or stimulus, the muscle 
is helpless. This is true of all muscular con- 
traction and is demonstrable beyond any 
question. A similar phenomenon is undoubt- 
edly true of all other functions. For instance, 
the stomach secretes certain digestive fluids. 
In this process of secretion, the secreting 
gland acts as does the muscle, only when in- 
fluenced by the nerve impulse starting from 
its center of origin and terminating in the 
gland. In like manner, we can logically as- 
sume that every other tissue and organ ex- 
hibits similar phenomena. Even the blood 
and lymph circulation, on which bodily 
health so much depends, is similarly controll- 
ed. The heart, the greatest propelling force, 
is a muscular organ acting as do other mus- 
cles. The walls of the blood channels are 
everywhere supplied with muscles and their 
governing nerves controlling their cali- 
bre, thereby regulating the quantity of fluid 
passing through them. Knowing these facts 
by practical experiment in physiological labo- 
ratories upon most of the bodily tissues, we 
dare assert that all function is governed by 

71 



nerve stimulus, originating in the brain — or 
simitar subsidiary center — and transmitted 
through the nerve to the organ or other part. 

With this conception of physiological 
function, we reasonably assume that health 
exists when functional life is normal — when 
the organ or part is in action in response to 
a normal nerve stimulus; and that disease is 
the result of the opposite condition — a fric- 
tion of parts, an interrupted nerve current 
and other causes to which these are contribu- 
tory. 

But why the opposite condition, this ab- 
normal action? Let us consider for a moment 
a condition that might produce this friction, 
or interference with the nerve current. The 
human machine, as are other machines, is 
subject to certain mechanical laws which 
must be obeyed. On account of its delicate 
structure and sensitive nature, it is even 
more susceptible to a violation of these laws 
than is the mere mechanical device. A dis- 
turbance of the relation of the parts, even 
though slight, produces friction somewhere, 
or impedes or restricts the nerve current. 
This done, function is impaired or ceases in 
the organ supplied by that nerve. The pro- 
ducts of that organ become deficient in quan- 
tity or quality — often in both — or its power 
to excrete the poisonous bodily waste ceases. 
Disease results in direct severity in propor- 
tion to the importance of the function impair- 
ed, to the amount of destroyed tissue, or ac- 
cording to the amount of poisonous matter 

72 



retained in the system. To restore health, 
function must be re-established. How 
shall this be done? We might cut away the 
diseased part; we might cauterize the area 
involved and cleanse it. But if we do nothing 
to re-establish the function, continued or pro- 
gressive destruction must follow. 

There is only one way in which tissue 
can be reconstructed. The work must be 
done by the natural tissue-building proper- 
ties of the body, the normal blood and lymph 
and the products of digestion properly assim- 
ilated. No medicine will do this for the or- 
gan. The most expert chemist, with any pos- 
sible combination of drugs cannot construct 
tissue. In order to heal a wound there must 
be brought to it, through the natural chan- 
nels of the body, the tissue-building mater- 
ials. 

Obstructions are referred to above. 
What are they! Why do they exist! How do 
they originate? What effect have they on 
functional life! For the purpose of this ar- 
ticle reference to one class will suffice. The 
spine is composed of a number of bones, ver- 
tebrae, one upon the other, being so perfor- 
ated that together they form a bony canal in 
which lies the spinal cord. A joint is formed 
at the juncture of each pair of adjacent bony 
segments of the spine. The spine therefore 
is a series of joints, as well. Now the func- 
tion of a joint is motion. This is what it is 
created for — movement. Sometimes this mo- 
tion is impeded; sometimes it ceases altogeth- 

73 



er. Strains and injuries of various natures 
induce inflammatory action, forming adhes- 
ions or producing thickening of the compon- 
ent parts of the joints. This is one form of 
obstruction. The result is disease — disorder. 
But this obstruction in itself is not necessar- 
ily a serious condition. The stiffness of a 
single joint of the spine need not interfere 
with much bodily activity. The bending of 
the spine is not an absolutely essential ele- 
ment in life. But passing between ad- 
jacent vertebrae are two nerves, one on 
either side, the media through which is 
transmitted the energy governing other and 
often much more important functions. As 
the joint becomes restricted, ligaments 
around it contract and harden, excretions in- 
filtrate the tissues and disturb or decrease the 
size of the passage in which the nerves lie to 
such an extent that all nerve energy may 
there be dissipated. The organ supplied by 
such nerve, therefore becomes inactive — its 
function ceases and its individual life is im- 
paired. Again, since the spinal cord receives 
its blood supply — nutrition — through these 
same openings, most serious damage may re- 
sult from a lack of blood there and a conse- 
quently starved nervous system. 

Impaired motion of the spinal joints and 
the accompanying hindrance to the spinal 
cord circulation are not the only obstructions 
that may exist. Strains and contractures of 
muscles often cause various irregularities of 
the joints. A single verterbra may be "slip- 

74 



ped" to the side (of course only slightly, 
otherwise severing the cord or causing a 
pressure upon it sufficient to produce paraly- 
sis at that point), a rotation may exist, or 
a slip or rotation of a series of vertebrae — 
thereby impinging upon the nerves springing 
from the spinal cord directly, or indirectly 
by drawing tight the vertebral ligaments. 

Thus far, it has been the aim of the writ- 
er to make plain one form of " lesion' ' — 
"perverted structure which by pressure pro- 
duces or maintains functional disorder. " It 
is not the intention so to confine the subject. 
There are other forms of lesion, many of 
them; but to go into detail with each class, 
since the principle is generally applicable, is 
useless. 

The osteopathic viewpoint, therefore, 
is based in general upon the principle that 
"structure (anatomical relations) determines 
function." Health exists when there is har- 
mony in structure. Disease follows disor- 
dered relations; or disease is the result of 
(First) structural derangement which inev- 
itably produces (Second) perverted or sus- 
pended function. (The writer is aware that 
abuse may modify function thereby originat- 
ing pathological conditions, but that phase 
of the subject cannot be considered in the 
brief space allowed for this subject.) 

Osteopathic therapeutics, therefore, de- 
pend upon the mechanical principle of ad- 
justment of structure. It contemplates that 
the bodily functions are maintained by the 

75 



harmonious, unrestricted action of all parts. 
The presence of disease indicates primarily 
structural derangement — interference with 
the free action of the vital forces. To locate 
this derangement, together with a considera- 
tion of all its associated consequences consti- 
tutes the substance of the Osteopath's diag- 
nosis. Then, his therapeutics is an adjust- 
ment, by manual operations, of that abnor- 
mal structure, adapted to the individual con- 
dition and varying according to the partic- 
ular needs. When this adjustment is secured, 
by the removal of the obstruction and a con- 
sequent liberation of nerve energy — a res- 
toration to normal function — nature rebuilds 
or restores the weakened tissue. 

Nature always tends toward the normal 
so long as she has freedom of action. Her 
power to do this is inherent. There is no ex- 
ternal force which will supply her demands 
in artificial doses. She needs no tonic or stim- 
ulant — no whip. All that is required is the 
freedom of action with which she was orig- 
inally endowed by an all-wise Creator. 



Osteopathic jEesions 



{Reprinted fro f n^t he Stillonan. ) 

April, 1910, 

From Notes on a Lecture Delivered to the Stillonians. 



Man, the most complex, intricate and delicately con- 
structed machine of all creation, is the one with which the 
Osteopath must become familiar. — A. T. Still. 



Osteopathic Lesions 

By G. M. Laughlin, M. S. D., D. O. 

FEOM an osteopathic point of view, a 
lesion is any abnormality of structure 
which (interferes with function. Do 
not get the idea that these lesions are great 
big things, that there must be a dislocated 
vertebra or rib, or a spinal curvature or some 
great abnormality in order to constitute a 
lesion. There are comparatively few lesions 
of that kind. When there is the least particle 
of abnormality of position of spinal structure 
or when there is change in the relation of 
bones, ligaments and muscles, these condi- 
tions constitute lesions. We may have a ro- 
tation of a vertebra and that is a lesion; we 
may have a curvature of the spine and that is 
a lesion; we may have a straight spine and 
that is a lesion; a rigid spine, hardened or 
tensed muscles all constitute lesions. They 
are all lesions because they are abnormal 
structural conditions and interfere with the 
origin and transmission of nerve force. 

We must recognize that the nervous 
structure is the master structure; nerve tis- 
sue the master tissue. When there is any 



thing wrong with the nerve impulses, some 
disturbance of function is going to occur. 
You all know that the nervous system is 
very much like an electric-light plant. The 
impulses originating in the central portion of 
the nervous system, the brain and spinal 
cord, are transmitted all over the body. The 
brain is the dynamo, the nerve fibers are the 
wires. In the electric-plant, if the dynamo 
should get out of fix, we could have no light ; 
so if something is wrong with the nutrition 
to the brain or spinal cord, the impulses will 
not be normal. If the wires are broken or 
short circuited, the light goes out; so with 
the nervous system, if the nerves are im- 
pinged upon or irritated, of course there will 
be interference with function — the impulses 
will not be normal. 

In order to have good digestion, good 
elimination, etc., we must have the proper 
distribution of nerve force and no interfer- 
ence with the nerves after they leave the 
central nervous system. Any of the lesions 
spoken of might interfere with the nutrition 
to the central system where the nerve cells 
are located. The spinal cord and brain must 
be nourished with good blood. The blood car- 
ries nutrition from the gastro-intestinal tract 
to the central nervous system. If there is any 
interference to the blood supply on account 
of spinal lesions, the nervous impulses 
will be weak and the individual will not have 
good health. Wherever there is a lesion, 
there is obstruction; interference with the in- 

80 



tervertebral foramini, interference with the 
vaso-motor nerves which control circulation 
and interference with the central nervous 
system. 

We find the principal cause for most of 
our chronic ailments to be either reduction of 
vitality at the nerve center due to interfer- 
ence with nutrition or some mechanical inter- 
ference with the nerves themselves. 

All lesions found along the spine do not 
result from injury or trauma. Some do, of 
course, but most of them come on slowly; 
not in a day or a week and not because we 
step into a hole or fall. Most of them come on 
slowly and may be two, three, four, five or 
even twenty years in developing. Then how 
did they come about? Trauma is one cause, 
overwork, exposure and many times infec- 
tious diseases, where the individual is ex- 
tremely ill for a period of time; all these 
are causative factors which will produce a 
warping and twisting of the spinal column 
and bring about mal-adjustment. Chronic 
diseases come on as a result of these slowly 
developing lesions. 

In practically all cases where there is 
lesion, there is limitation of motion. The 
question is sometimes asked, "How are les- 
ions maintained !" I have made the state- 
ment that we do not have complete disloca- 
tion in order to have lesion, but limitation of 
motion which interferes with nutrition to 
the nervous system. As the lesion develops, 
the abnormal position produces a local irri- 

81 



tation or inflammation. New tissue forms 
about the site of the lesion causing adhesions 
at that point and as these adhesions thicken, 
the ligaments and muscles lose their elastic- 
ity, stiffen smd harden, maintaining the les- 
ion. 

In chronic diseases, by breaking up the 
adhesions, where there is fibrous tissue form- 
ed; by the establishment of motion, where 
motion is indicated and by the correction of 
structure, we remove the interference to the 
nutrition to the nervous system so that im- 
pulses may be properly originated and prop- 
erly transmitted and the organs perform 
their normal functions. 



Scientific {Proofs 



The scientist is only an ignorant man well fed with ex- 
perience.— A. T. Still. 



Proofs That Bony Lesions 
Cause Disease. 

By Louisa Burns, M. S., D. O. 

{Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy.) 
November, 1909 

IF the work of Dr. Still had included noth- 
ing more than the recognition of the re- 
lation between mal-adjustment of bones 
and other tissues to certain forms of dis- 
ease, this alone is enough to place him 
first among discoverers in the field of 
medicine during the nineteenth century. 
That these slight misplacements, called 
"bony lesions," do act as efficient factors in 
the production of abnormal function is prov- 
ed by the following facts: 

1. The examination of patients suffering 
from disease not due to local injury shows 
that there are bony lesions affecting the re- 
gions most closely associated with the nerve 
centers controlling the organs which are ab- 
normal. 

2. The examination of people in fairly 
good health may show that there are bony 
lesions affecting the nerve centers in certain 
parts of their bodies. In such cases it is 

85 



found either that they are subject to mal- 
function of such organs, or it will be found 
later that these organs are more subject to 
infection, etc., than the rest of the body. 

3. In persons who are sick, and in whom 
the bony lesion is found, the correction of the 
lesion is found to be followed by a relief of 
the symptoms; and if there has been no de- 
struction of tissue, by return to health. 

4. The examination of cadavers fre- 
quently shows the existence of bony lesions, 
and of abnormal visceral conditions in the 
related nerve centers. 

5. Slight and temporary bony lesions, 
experimentally produced upon human sub- 
jects, give rise to those changes in the pres- 
sure and circulation of the blood which ini- 
tiate the beginnings of disease and the lower- 
ing of vitality. 

6. Bony lesions experimentally produced 
upon animals are followed by circulatory and 
functional changes of the organs in closest 
central connection with them, and these 
changes are to be predicted from the location 
of the lesions produced. In anesthetised ani- 
mals, the changes may be watched as they 
follow the production of the lesion. 

The physiological effects of the bony 
lesions upon the visceral, vascular and skele- 
tal muscles and the glands of the^ body are 
explained by the anatomical relationships of 
these structures. 



86 



In Proof of Osteopathy. 

By Asa Willard, D. O. 

{Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy.') 
November, 1909. 

IN spite of the results accomplished, there 
the those who have poo-pooed the osteo- 
pathic theories. That a vertebra could 
ever be slightly misplaced has been consider- 
ed all bosh. They have contended that if it is 
misplaced at all, it must be entirely dislocat 
ed, and such would cause either death or 
complete paralysis. The X-ray has, in a num- 
ber of instances confirmed the Osteopath's 
diagnosis as to the occurrence of slight ver- 
tabral displacements. 

Experiments have been made in the lab- 
oratory which tend to prove the theory of 
spinal strains, contractures and slight dis- 
placements affecting nerves and the organs 
surjplied by those nerves. For instance, Dr. 
C. P. McConnell of Chicago (a summary of 
whose experiments follows) took healthy 
dogs from the pound and, after putting them 
under an anaesthetic, made slight strains at 
certain points along the spine; no severe, 
gross deformity was brutally caused; no 
fracture; no complete dislocation: the tissues 
were not torn; just a slight twist such as a 
child frequently gets in play and forgets 
about almost as soon as it is done. Then, 

87 



when the dog had been killed some weeks 
later, the nerves near the point where the 
slight wrench had been made were examined, 
both with the naked eye and the microscope 
and then the organs which these nerves sup- 
plied were likewise examined. In every in- 
stance, the nerves showed congestion and 
the organs which they supplied showed con- 
gestion, inflammation and functional disor- 
der. 






Dr. McConneH's Experi- 
ments. 

{Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy. ) 
May, 1906. 

FOR the past two years, Dr. C. P. McCon- 
nell has been experimenting upon 
healthy dogs, producing slight dis- 
placements of the vertebrae and ribs and 
studying the effects produced. He has an- 
nounced his results in twelve cases, six last 
July and six within the last month. The fol- 
lowing is a summary of the results: 

In nine of the twelve cases, inflammation 
of the nerves at the seat of the lesion was 
noticed and in one a nervous degeneration 
was manifest. In each case the diseased or- 
gans were under the control of the nerves 
coming off from that part of the spinal col- 
umn in which the lesion was made. 

Dog 1. — Showed a stricture of the small 
intestine. 

Dogs 2 and 3. — Had spleens very much 
enlarged. 

Dogs 3 and 5. — Became very sick. 

Dog 5 — Lost flesh rapidly. 

Dog 6. — Dissection showed an inflamed 
area in the stomach and an enlarged spleen. 

Dog 7. — Became blind. 

Dog 8. — Became blind, then died. 

Dog 10. — Developed a goitre. 

89 



Dog 11. — Dissection showed hemorrhag- 
ic inflammation of the kidneys. 

Dog 12. — Died in three days with hem- 
orrhage from the intestines. 

Thus the osteopathic lesion theory has 
been demonstrated. First by the cure of dis- 
ease by the removal of lesions. Second by 
causing disease by producing lesions. 

Note. Since the experiments referred to above, 
Dr. McConnell has conducted numerous other ex- 
periments along similar lines, gaining therefrom fur- 
ther evidences of the effects of bony lesions in the 
production of disease. 






Dr. Louisa Burns' Experi- 
ments. 

By G. V. Webster, D. O. 

FOR some time, Dr. Louisa Burns has 
been conducting a series of experi- 
ments, to determine the immediate ef- 
fects of bony lesions, at the Labratory of the 
Pacific College of Osteopathy. The experi- 
ments were conducted upon animals and hu- 
man subjects. The animals used for the pur- 
pose were cats, dogs, guinea pigs and white 
rats. In every case the animal was given an- 
anesthetic and none were ever permitted to 
regain consciousness after once losing it. No 
anesthetic was given the human subjects. 
These were intelligent men and women in 
good health and all ignorant of the nature of 
the reaction to be expected from the experi- 
ment. 

The experiments included lesions of the 
vertebrae, careful note being made of the 
immediate effects of the lesions experiment- 
ally produced. Cases were excluded from 
consideration where there was any doubt as 
to the lesion or any of the observations. One 
instance of lesion, namely, the ninth and 
tenth dorsal vertebrae, is here given to illus- 
trate the effects repeatedly observed. 

Animal tests showed that lesions of 
these vertebrae was followed by lessened 

91 



peristaltic movement of the stomach and in- 
testines, dilatation of the blood vessels of the 
stomach, intestines and pancreas, increase in 
size of the spleen, accumulation of gas in the 
intestines and sometimes the peristalic move- 
ment of the intestines was reversed. In some 
cases, after the lesion had been maintained 
for some time, bile was found in the stomach. 

The human tests shewed that lesions of 
these vertebrae produced a lowering of the 
blood pressure, increased reaction time, 
noises of moving gas in the intestine and a 
sense of sleepiness. The accumulation of gas 
in the intestines sometimes caused discom- 
fort, but there was no symptoms of nervous- 
ness or headache that appeared, although 
these discomforts were present when the les- 
ions of the vertebrae higher up in the spine 
were experimentally produced. 

The clinic records show that the diseases 
associated with lesions of these vertebrae are 
gastritis, gastrectasis, colitis, congestion o f 
the liver, congestion of the spleen, ca- 
tarrhal jaundice and constipation. 

The tests were carefully conducted and 
the recorded observations add other scientific 
proofs to the osteopathic theory. 



Osteopathy Proved by Dis- 
section. 

By F. P. Young, A. B., M. D., D. O. 

{Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy. ) 
August, 1907. 

THE questions have been frequently put 
to me during the last five years, 
"What does the dead-room show in re- 
gard to the osteopathic theory! Is the exis- 
tence of osteopathic lesions proved by 
dissection? If so, to what extent?" As 
a general statement I will say that in- 
asmuch as the osteopathic theory is 
based upon the general idea that dis- 
turbed anatomical relations lead to a per- 
verted functioning, to a marked extent this 
is proved by dissection. 

During the five years in which I have 
had charge of the anatomical laboratory of 
the American School of Osteopathy, two hun- 
dred and sixty-seven cadavers have been dis 
sec ted or used for the surgical laboratory. I 
have not made painstaking observations, but 
in all cases I have carefully noted the path- 
ological canditions, the probable cause of 
d-°ath and what, if any, bony lesions were 
present. Also whether the lesions present 
were associated with the disease in question. 

The lesions which were demonstrable 

93 



and which apparently had connection with 
the existing diseased conditions were almost 
entirely confined to the spine, ribs and in- 
nominates. Lesions observed consisted of 
subluxated vertebrae, ribs and innominates, 
existing singly or in combination with or 
without curvature of the spine. In making 
these observations, due consideration was 
given to the history of the cadaver, i. e., the 
amount of handling and the probability of 
the condition being antemortem or post- 
mortem, also the fluid with which the body 
was preserved. However, no amount of 
handling nor hardly any possible violence 
could have produced the lesions, postmortem. 
The preservative fluids quickly fix the tissues 
so that displacements of the bones as observ- 
ed could not take place. In other words, the 
evidence is almost conclusive that the les- 
ions were antemortem. Now when we consid- 
er what the diseased process was in each in- 
stance, calling to mind anatomical relations, 
nerve and blood supply, we are almost forc- 
ed to the conclusion that the theory of Osteo- 
pathy is proved by dissection. 



Ttfanner of TJreatment 



Find it, fix it and leave it alone.— A. T. Still. 



Manner of Treatment . 

By G. V. Webster, D. O. 

THE object of osteopathic manipulations 
being largely to adjust the bony struc- 
tures of the body to their proper rela- 
tive position for the purpose of removing in- 
terference to the physiological action of or- 
gans and the cure of disease, the manner of 
procedure is of interest. 

The first consideration is the establish- 
ment of a correct diagnosis of the pathologi- 
cal condition, to which end the usual methods 
of physical and laboratory diagnosis may be 
employed. Having located the seat of the 
pathological condition and the extent of or- 
ganic changes in the tissues of the body as 
far as possible, the next step is the analysis 
of the causes which might have led to the 
perverted functioning or the organic change, 
determining whether motion, sensation or 
nutrition be interfered with. The avenues of 
travel for the impulses controlling each of 
these functions that may be found disturbed 
are then searched for possible cause of inter- 
ruptions to the normal movement of such im- 
pulses or for reflexes that might divert or 

97 



augment them. The nerves and blood vessels 
being seldom subject to abnormal pressure 
while passing through the softer tissues of 
the body, it is but reasonable to suppose that 
the most likely point of mechanical interfer- 
ence is at some point where they come 
into relation with the denser structures 
of the body. It is then the duty of the 
Osteopath to examine closely the rela- 
tions of the vertebrae, ribs, innominates, 
etc., to find the exact point or points of 
interference to the forces that present 
evidence of disordered physiological ac- 
tion in the case at hand. In this the osteo- 
pathic method is peculiar, individual and dis- 
tinct from all other methods of examination. 
The usual physical examination for the de- 
termination of the organ functioning improp- 
erly, guides the Osteopath to certain definite 
points along the spine where the nerves con- 
trolling that function center and, on the 
other hand, should the Osteopath make the 
spinal examination first his findings of struc- 
tural deviations there would, according to 
their location, indicate to him more or less 
accurately the organs whose functions are 
disturbed. 

So much for the diagnosis, and having 
established the same both pathologically and 
osteopathically, he proceeds to treat the case 
along osteopathic lines in accordance with 
the findings, or he may refer the case to the 
best means available for the care of the con- 



98 



ditions, whether it be surgical, institutional 
or otherwise, as may be indicated. 

Proceeding with the osteopathic treat- 
ment, for that concerns us most at this point, 
the patient, dressed in clothing that will per- 
mit of freedom of motion to the spine and 
extremities, occupies a sitting or reclining 
posture that will afford the greatest ease of 
operation for the physician and allowing 
muscular relaxation of the parts to be adjust- 
ed. The Osteopath uses his hands to make the 
adjustments. From his knowledge of the 
structures of the body and the relation of 
the parts under operation, he chooses a point 
to be used for a fulcrum while the leverage 
necessary to place the structures in their 
proper relative position is usually obtained 
by the use as a lever of one or more of the 
bones adjacent to the point of lesion, or 
structural abnormality, which is the object of 
his attention. Not so much force as skill is 
required to bring about the adjustment de- 
sired. Each particular lesion requires a cer- 
tain definite fulcrum or fulcrums and a cer- 
tain definite lever or leverages used singly or 
successively to move the structures to their 
normal position. 

The technique of each osteopathic 
adjustment is exceedingly complex and 
difficult of proper execution, requiring, 
as it does, a highly sensitive touch, com- 
plete knowledge of the structures and their 
physiological relations at the seat of the op- 
eration, judgment as to the placing of the ful- 

99 



crum and the choice of levers, acquaintance 
with the laws of mechanics governing the use 
of levers, consideration as to the amount of 
energy necessary to operate the levers used to 
bring about adjustment without producing 
pain or discomfort for the patient. All these 
and more the osteopathic physician must 
bring to bear with skill upon each problem 
of adjustment that he attempts to solve. 
Every movement that the physician makes 
during each manipulative procedure is 
done with a certain definite end in view ac- 
cording to the needs presented by the situa- 
tion. Nothing is done by rote, the individual 
case requires definite and specific treatment 
whether it be to secure the adjustment of 
one vertebra or a dozen that may be out of 
normal position. 

The question is often asked how 
many treatments, corrections or attempts 
to correct a given lesion may be neces- 
sary before it will remain in normal position, 
and it is a very difficult question to answer, 
there being so many factors concerned in 
the cause and maintainance of these structur- 
al perversions. Practically speaking each 
case is a law unto itself. A single correction 
which being afterwards maintained has giv- 
en Osteopathy many a glorious victory over 
disease. On the other hand, in old curvatures 
for instance, where there is change in form as 
well as in position of the vertebrae, no num- 
ber of attempts at correction could be crown- 
ed with perfect success. Often the ligaments 

100 



about the lesion have thickened as the result 
of inflammatory changes just as they do 
about any sprained joint, in which* case 
the Osteopath is confronted with a 
problem which it will take time and 
repeated efforts at correction to success- 
fully solve. Other things being equal, 
the relief of functional or the benefit 
given organic disease is usually in direct 
proportion to the degree of success obtained 
in the correction of the lesions, provided of 
course that the organic changes have not 
progressed beyond all possibility of help 
from natural sources. 

The length of time necessary for a treats 
ment varies according to the needs of the 
case at hand, and the dispatch with which 
the physician is able to recognize such need 
and apply suitable remedial measures. In a 
case presenting a single twisted rib that is 
manifestly the sole source of functional dis- 
order, it would be folly to spend time in go- 
ing through motions about the other ribs. 
The single rib might be adjusted in a minute 
or two. On the other hand, it would be equal- 
ly as unwise to confine the attentions to one 
rib when several ribs or vertebrae are con- 
cerned in the lesion. Here again each case is 
a law unto itself and the judgment of the 
practitioner must interpret the law. 

There are those who are burdened with 
the idea that osteopathic treatment is stren- 
uous, rough and painful and from certain 
quarters this idea is encouraged, by state- 

101 



ments that only the strong can withstand 
the treatment. However, the truth is that the 
treatments are gauged to meet the needs of 
the patient whether it be a babe, a feeble old 
person or an athlete. Here is where the Os- 
teopath's judgment is called into play to 
meet the condition of the patient, as is a med- 
ical physician's judgment in the choice of 
dosage. Even the most skillful operator can- 
not promise to work always without discom- 
fort or pain to his patient, but if he is con- 
scientious he will accomplish the end desir- 
ed with the least possible discomfort to his 
patient. Points that are extremely sensitive 
to the touch because of the conditions inci- 
dent to the lesion or areas of inflammation 
are treated indirectly so that the pain of 
treatment is minimized, but most osteopathic 
procedures are not necessarily associated 
with pain. 

With regard to the frequency of treat- 
ment for the individual case, this too is a 
law unto itself. In acute conditions several 
treatments within twenty-four hours may be 
indicated. Others may require treatment 
daily, and from that to once weekly or only 
occasionally according as the need may be 
apparent. 

Another question frequently asked is 
concerning the corrections and the perman- 
ency of the results of osteopathic work. Here 
nature assists the physician with a tendency 
to maintain normal structural and functional 
conditions. While the same circumstances 

102 



that produced the lesions in the first place 
may operate to produce the same again, yet 
with the tendency being toward the normal 
and the patient instructed to avoid possible 
repetition in the action of the forces that pro- 
duced the lesion, the results are largely of a 
permanent nature, the improvement being 
specific and constitutional as well. 



j{ Differentiation 



The Osteopath's businesses to know the plumbing of 
the house of life.— A. T. Still. 



The Difference Between Os- 
teopathy and Massage. 

By Asa Willard, D. O. 

{Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy.) 
November, 1909 

AS some people have the conception that 
Osteopathy is merely massage, a word 
under this heading might right some 
one's misconception. 

A barber and a surgeon both work on the 
body with sharp instruments, yet their work 
is different. A Homeopath is not an Allo- 
path because they both use drugs. There is 
a difference between the stone mason and 
the sculptor. The masseur uses his hands in 
his work; so does the Osteopath, and there 
the comparison ends. 

Massage is a system of movements, cer- 
tain slappings, rubbings and squeezings, 
done by rote and learned in a few months. 
An Osteopath is a trained physician seeking 
cut the cause and removing it. The masseur 
finds a limb congested or badly nourished 
and goes about rubbing and squeezing to 
stir up the stagnant circulation. You could 
do this in the case of the arm which has gone 

107 



to sleep because it has been Tianging over the 
back of the chair, or the leg because it has 
been crossed, but only temporary relief 
would be afforded if the limb is not moved in 
such a manner that the pressure upon the 
nerves and blood vessels is removed. The Os- 
teopath would seek out the point where ob- 
struction exists to these nerve and blood cur- 
rents, remove that obstruction and open the 
channel. This done, he reasons that the 
heart will propel the blood and the nervous 
system will attend to its distribution in a 
normal manner. He stretches muscles when 
necessary, he relaxes ligaments and adjusts 
to their normal relations bones, cartilages 
and other dense structures, but he does not 
stroke and rub the surface. 



Other Differences. 

By A. T. Still, M. D., D. O. 

{Reprinted by Permission from The Ladies Home Journal.) 
January, 1908 

OSTEOPATHY absolutely differs from 
massage. The definition of "Mas- 
sage" is masso, to knead: shampooing 
of the body by special manipulations, such as 
kneading, tapping, stroking, etc. The mas- 
seur rubs and kneads the muscles to increase 
the circulation. The Osteopath never rubs. 
He takes off any pressure on blood-vessels 
or nerves by the adjustment of any displace- 
ment, whether it be of a bone, cartilage, lig- 
ament, tendon, muscle, or even of the fascia 
which enfolds all structures; also by relaxing 
any contracture of muscle or ligament due to 
displacements, to drafts causing colds, to 
overwork or nerve exhaustion. The Osteo- 
path knows the various nerve-centers and 
how to treat them, in order that the vaso-mo- 
tor nerves can act upon the blood-vessels, 
bringing about in a physiological manner a 
normal heart-action and freeing up the chan- 
nels to and from the heart. The Osteopath 
deals always with causes, has no "rules of 
action," as such, but applies reason to each 
case according to the conditions presented, 
treating no two cases quite alike. He knows 

109 



from past experience that the effect seen is 
produced by a cause with which he must deal 
in order to give relief. 

The Osteopath is a physician. The 
masseur does not take the responsibility of 
the full charge of a diseased condition, but 
works under the direction of a physician, and 
has to do with effects, applying by rote to 
the body so much rubbing, so much stroking, 
so much tapping, so much kneading, etc., 
there being definite rules laid down applic- 
able to general cases. 

Osteopathy is a science and an art also. 
It includes a knowledge of anatomy, biology, 
physiology, chemistry and pathology. Its 
therapeutics are independent and original, 
and as extensive as the entire medical and 
surgical fields. 



a, 



emmtscences 



{Reprinted from the Bulletin of the Atlas and Axis Clubs.} 
June, 1901. 



I first saw the tracks of God in the snow of time. I 
followed them. — A. T. Still. 



Reminiscences 

By Charles E. Still, D. O. 

WHEN a boy in Kansas, not more than 
nine years of age, I was out with 
my father and an old physician one 
day, when we stopped at a house where there 
was a boy almost totally blind. My father 
slipped up to him and took hold of his neck; 
in a few minutes he bade him look at the sun 
and behold the blindness had disappeared. 
Another case that I recall among many oth- 
ers was a few years later when we had moved 
to Kirksville. My father concluded to go 
to Hannibal, taking my brother and me with 
him, and, as we were going from the Hanni- 
bal depot to the hotel, we met an old colored 
man who was badly crippled. My father ask- 
ed him his trouble and after getting a reply, 
he had him stand up against a dry goods box 
at the side of the street. My father set down 
a floursack of bones we were carrying (at 
that time he always made the illustra- 
tions to enlighten his patients and we had 
to carry the bones with us) ; he then took 
hold of his leg and after apparently winding 

113 



it around a few times, lie told the man to 
walk, which he did without so much as a limp 
much to the amazement of the bystanders 
who had collected. Time and again equally 
as wonderful cures were made by him in my 
presence and, boy that I was, I realized that 
my father was a gifted man. As I grew old 
er, he would show me where to put my hands 
and tell me what to do and I found that fre- 
quently I had good results. Several years 
passed in this way and, treating with him or 
under his direct supervision, I began to won- 
der if I really did any good or if it was all his 
work which brought about the results. 

When I was nearly grown, I again went 
with him to Hannibal where he always had a 
good practice during his stay. A few days 
after our arrival a woman came in with 
badly granulated eyelids. I examined and 
treated the case without any assistance from 
him and to my surprise the woman entirely 
recovered. Up to this time I had believed 
that my father's ability to cure was only a 
gift to him, although he was constantly tell- 
ing me that it was a science and that others 
could learn it. Soon after this, I was sent 
away to treat a ease of hiccoughs, in which I 
was also successful and from this time on I 
began the study of analyzing under the direc- 
tion of my father, his practice having become 
so large that both my brother and myself as- 
sisted him at all times and treated many 
cases ourselves. In a few years, he had made 
so many notable cures that others who 

114 



had accepted his theory began to want to 
learn his method. With the assistance of an 
anatomy teacher, he opened the first school 
of Osteopathy in 1892. I went through this 
school, treating all day and studying a good 
part of the night. The teaching was so diffi- 
cult and unsatisfactory that my father gave 
it up after the first year. After the closing of 
the school year, I determined to let my own 
work answer the question as to whether I 
could cure disease by this method of treat- 
ment, having been told by many that when 
my father died, Osteopathy would die also. 

In July, 1892, 1 left home to demonstrate 
not only to the world but also to myself that 
the healing art as practiced by my father was 
scientific. I launched out upon an unknown 
sea, not knowing how much or how little I 
could do, for I had always had my father to 
put on the finishing touches before the pa- 
tient was turned away. 

After treating a short time in Minneap- 
olis, I decided to locate in Eed Wing, Minn. 
A short time after I had located there my 
father came up to visit me. He saw a great 
many diphtheria notices on the doors and re- 
marked that Osteopathy could cure all such 
diseases. A day or two after he left, a man 
came to me and asked me to go to see his 
children, two of whom had been pronounced 
dangerously sick, if not beyond help, by the 
physician attending them. My father's re- 
mark had reached him and he would not go 
away without me. I had never seen a case of 

115 



diptheria before and I had nothing to fall 
back upon but my father's old teaching, 
that motion, sensation and nutrition were 
necessary to health. I collected my senses as 
best I could and tried to find out which of 
these were missing. After a thorough ex- 
amination, I found that both sensation and 
nutrition were lacking. Then it was neces- 
sary to find just what area of the cord con- 
trolled these parts. With my knowledge of 
anatomy and my experience, this was not dif- 
ficult to do. After the first treatment a decid- 
ed improvement was noticeable,but my la- 
bors did not stop until the children were en- 
tirely well. After the recovery of these little 
ones, cases of diphtheria were not wanting. 
During the epidemic that year I treated 
about sixty-five cases and lost but one. I 
think statistics will bear me out in saying 
that in Minnesota by far a larger per cent, 
were lost than cured under the old method 
of treatment. During the remainder of my 
stay of two years there, I had all the work 
and all the experience any one could wish for. 
I was called in to treat all the ailments of a 
great many families there. I treated epilep- 
tics by the score and successfully in most of 
the cases. I set a neck which was broken, as 
diagnosed by the first physician who saw the 
case and in which I fully concurred, as sensa- 
tion and motion were entirely absent. I also 
set a case of dislocated astragalus where the 
doctor had put the man in bed and strapped 
the foot higher than the head and told him to 

116 



stay there six weeks. The next morning after 
the dislocation was set, he went to work and 
it did not trouble him again. I could name a 
great many more cases which I treated suc- 
cessfully and which I had never seen any- 
thing like before, by the application of the 
knowledge I had gained from my father. I 
also learned that he could do many things 
which I could not duplicate, hence I deter- 
mined to return to Kirksville that I might 
learn from him as long as he lived. My ex- 
perience away gave me confidence in myself 
and in this method of treatment. I believe 
that this successful trip did more to establish 
the fact that Osteopathy could be taught to 
others than any other one thing. 



Osteopathic € ducat ion 



Knowledge is the result of the training of our mental 
faculties in the school of Nature. Knowledge is Nature 
understood. He who knows the most of Nature is the 
wisest man. His supposed powers are only Nature shown 
by his genius in conducting cause to produce resnlt. — A. T. 
Still. 




- ~ 



JK -MSI- 




45 <v 
at 23 

o 5 



Osteopathic Teaching 

By C. C. Teal, D. O. 

(Reprinted from the Bulletin of the Atlas and Axis Clubs.) 
March, 1906. 

OSTEOPATHIC teaching is revolution- 
ary. Old and accepted ideas were 
broken away from and an entirely new 
field of investigation was opened. 

In the beginning, a condition was found 
in the patient; it was corrected and the re- 
sult was health. That was all the public ask- 
ed. One ounce of cure was worth tons of 
theory and they did not inquire into the 
means of their relief. But to adequately 
teach Osteopathy a vast amount of original 
work had to be done. Anatomy is anatomy 
but there is a vast difference in its applica- 
tion. Physiology must be taught to mean 
something more than an interesting phenom- 
enon. Pathology had an unfilled gap between 
cause and effect which must be bridged. The 
post-mortem had a great story to tell but an 
Osteopath must tell it. A slide of degenerated 
tissue under the microscope is of interest but 
why the degeneration? It is described at 
length by the authorities but the causes and 
morbific changes are not carried out. Obstet- 
rics along strictly natural and physiological 

121 



lines insuring both mother and babe against 
injury; gynecology minus the knife and plus 
common sense; all these and more had to be 
shaped to teach the osteopathic student. The 
archives of Osteopathy were empty a few 
years ago. There was no precedent to follow 
and the ideas in teaching which had prevail- 
ed for centuries dominated. All this is chang- 
ed. The colleges teach the science along 
strictly osteopathic lines, making the appli- 
cation of the truths which have escaped the 
notice of centuries of investigation. 

There is a much discussed subject, just 
what is osteopathic and what is not. Dr. C. 
M. Hulett of Cleveland, at the Greater New 
York Osteopathic Society meeting said: 
"Every application, appliance, method or 
procedure used in treatment of disease may 
be classified under two heads. If its effect is 
to modify the vital processes themselves, it 
is medical. If its effect is to remove condi- 
tions which are interfering with processes, it 
is osteopathic. Among the first are most 
drugs used for their physiological effect, 
much surgery, electricity, hot air, vibrators 
and similar devices. Among the second are 
manipulation, germicides, regulation of "diet, 
habits and life environments. If the X-ray or 
Finsen light will kill the lupus or cancer 
germ the principle of their action is osteo- 
pathic." That is the best opinion on thai: 
much mooted question I have ever seen and 
it is a guide board for all who are in doubt. 



122 



The Osteopathic College 
Curriculum. 

By E. M. Downing, D. O. 

{Reprinted by permission from the Metroplitan Magazine.) 
September, 1908. 

THEEE are now several well appointed 
colleges located at Kirks ville, Mo. (the 
original school), Philadelphia, Boston, 
DesMoines, Chicago and Los Angeles. Oth- 
ers have been formed but have been merged 
with the above. These institutions under a 
system of inspection by officials of the na- 
tional organization, known as the American 
Osteopathic Association, maintain a stan- 
dard course of three years. A fourth year will 
no doubt be required in the near future. * 

Before me as I write are the catalogues 
of six colleges. There are only minor differ- 
ences in the course as mapped out, and one 
sees that students must do hard earnest work 
during the entire nine months of each of the 
three years. 

As might be expected, anatomy is the 
prominent feature of the course. Its study is 
continued throughout the three years, in 
four phases — descriptive, comparative, re- 
gional and applied anatomy. Practical dis- 
section is required. Physiology — the study 

123 



of the mechanism of the body at work — is 
scarcely secondary to anatomy. The phy- 
siology of the nervous system is especially 
considered and separately taught. Chemis- 
try, inorganic, organic and physiological is 
thoroughly studied. 

The other branches which are common 
to all schools of medicine (with the exception 
of materia medica) are taught in osteopathic 
colleges. They include biology, embryology, 
histology, pathology, symptomatology, phy- 
sical and laboratory diagnosis, obstetrics, 
gynecology, dietetics, hygiene, bacteriology, 
toxicology, urinalysis, surgery, nervous and 
mental diseases, pediatrics, dermatology, 
psychiatry and medical jurisprudence. 

'Besides these are the special osteopathic 
branches of physics or mechanics, technique, 
etiology from the osteopathic basis, theory 
and principles of Osteopathy and practice of 
Osteopathy. In addition, are the clinics in 
which the student, during two years of his 
college course, gets actual experience in 
treating disease. The total number of hours 
of required attendance is about equal to the 
requirement of the medical schools, the three 
years of nine months each being virtually 
equivalent to four years of seven months 
each. Several of the colleges maintain post- 
graduate courses, which are well attended. 

*The Philadelphia College of Osteopathy began 
a four year course September 1910. The American 
School of Osteopathy, Kirksville, Mo., announces 
the beginning of the four year course September 
1911. 

124 



The Difference 

Between Qsteopthic and Medical Teaching. 

{Reprinted from the Catalogue of The American School 
of Osteopathy .1910-1911.) 

OSTEOPATHY, being a new science of 
healing, some explanation of the dif- 
ference between the subjects taught in 
this school and in the * ' Old School ' ' of medi- 
cine is of interest. 

It will be seen by glancing at the table 
below that the names of a majority of the 
subjects are the same and that where there 
are differences they must be differences in 
the presentation of the subject and not in 
the subject itself. 

In the first year, the osteopathic student 
takes the same subjects as the average stu- 
dent of medicine, viz: anatomy, physiology, 
histology, chemistry, embryology and bac- 
teriology. There is not so much difference 
between these subjects and the subjects 
studied in medical schools as there is in sub- 
jects taken later, still there are noticeable 
differences. 

The osteopathic student, not intending 
to follow drug giving, aims in his study of 
Chemistry to make himself proficient in the 
chemistry of the human body and studies fur- 
ther antiseptics nnd anesthetics, the various 

125 



other drugs of the pharmacopeia failing to 
interest him seriously. 

In the first year of anatomy, the study 
differs largely in the intensity of the interest 
taken by an osteopathic student who is learn- 
ing anatomy for future use; for the Osteo- 
path like the operating surgeon needs his 
knowledge of anatomy all the time. Espec- 
ially does the osteopathic student study the 
nervous and vascular systems. 

Physiology differs from the physiology 
of the medical schools in the fact that the 
osteopathic student devotes much more at- 
tention to the physiology of the nerves than 
is given by medical students, anatomy and 
physiology being considered the elementary 
foundation for osteopathic teaching. 

About the same difference might be not- 
ed in some of the more advanced subjects of 
the course, but there are some subjects in 
which the difference is fundamental. 

Principles of Osteopathy is taught in 
place of pharmacology. The teaching of 
Practice of Osteopathy is similar to the Prac- 
tice of Medicine to a certain extent in so far 
as pathology, symptoms, diet, hygiene and 
prevention are concerned but the actual me- 
thods of treatment are not in any way simi- 
lar. 

A part of the teaching in obstetrics and 
gynecology are the same, but there are 
many and important differences. Applied 
anatomy as taught here is very different 
from that taught in other schools, not that 

126 



the anatomy is different but some of the 
points emphasized here are not mention- 
ed in medical schools and' vice-versa. The 
impression has been cultivated in some quar- 
ters that Osteopaths do not study surgery 
and it is interesting to note in this connec- 
tion that the 180 hours lectures recommended 
by the Association of Medical Colleges is 
exactly the number of hours on that subject 
given by the American School of Osteopathy. 
There are a number of other differences 
but these are the most important and will 
be sufficient to give an idea of the course of 
study. 

Subjects Eecommended Subjects taught 
by the Association of in the American 

American Medical Col- School of Osteo- 
leges pa thy 

Histology Histology 

Embryology Embryology 

Osteology Osteology 

Anatomy , Anatomy 

Physiology Physiology 

Chemistry and Chemistry and 

Toxicology ...... Toxicology 

Materia Mediea .... Principles of Osteopathy 

Pharmacology .... Osteopathic Mechanics 

Therapeutics 

Bacteriology 'Bacteriology 

Pathology Pathology 

Medical Zoology 

Clinical Microscopy. .. .Clinical Microscopy 

Physical Diagnosis Physical Diagnosis 

Osteopathic Diagnosis 

127 



Practice of Medicine, Practice of Osteopathy 

Surgery Surgery 

Applied Anatomy 

Obstetrics Obstetrics 

Gynecology Gynecology 

Pediatrics Pediatrics 

Eye and Ear Eye and Ear 

Nose and Throat Nose and Throat 

Mental and Nervous Mental and Nervous 

Diseases Diseases 

Electro-Therapeutics . . Electro-Therapeutics 
Genito-Urinary Genito-Urinary 

Diseases Diseases 

Dermatology and Dermatology and 

Syphilis Syphilis 

Hygiene and Public Hygiene and Public 

Health Health 

JQJietetics Dietetics 

Medical Jurispru- Medical Jurispru 
dence dence 



JJhe Srowth 
of Osteopathy 



{Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy.) 
July, 1909. 



This is a -war not for conquest, popularity or power. It 
is an aggressive campaign for love, truth and humanity. 
— A. T. Still 



The Growth of Osteopathy 
Then and Now. 

By A. G. Hildreth, D. O. 

From an address delivered at a meeting of the American 
Osteopathic Association. 

THE poetry of Osteopathy has never been 
written. The essence, or abstract of 
this great truth which has enriched so 
many lives has never, and can never be ex- 
pressed in words, for it is so indelibly inter- 
woven with the every day occurrences of so 
many different individuals that it will be im- 
possible to collect in one volume the all that 
goes to make up a complete whole — central- 
ized at first in one man and his family, then 
divided with others until today it has to do 
with the lives of thousands and still is being 
handed on and on. Ah, who dare attempt to 
write the all of the "Then and Now?" Come 
with me in your minds and walk over this 
identical spot of ground seventeen years ago 
this spring; look at the little five-room cot- 
tage, the rooms of which were used as treat- 
ing rooms by Dr. Andrew Taylor Still and his 
sons; see the people scattered here and there 

131 



around his home and the little office building, 
with the bus driving occasionally to the 
door, depositing its invalid or cripple to see 
the then becoming famous "bone doctor." 
In August following, note a little frame 
structure, fourteen by twenty-eight feet, in 
the course of construction just in front of 
the original five-room cottage. Get a 
glimpse, if you can, of those things as they 
were and as they are so vividly painted in 
the memories of those of us who were here at 
that time and you may have some conception 
of Osteopathy as it was then. 

Then turn your eye to the present, com- 
pare this building with those described. Then 
look across the ravine at the well equipped, 
up-to-date hospital and you will have some 
conception of the Osteopath of today. A com- 
parison of the "Then and Now" in material 
things only at the birthplace of this science 
is certainly very satisfactory and no doubt 
but its progress has far outgrown the fondest 
anticipations of him who started this great 
work. But even with all this development 
achieved here at the parent institution it is 
incomparable with our growth, development 
and progress made in the literary, social, 
professional and scientific world. For more 
than five years from the beginning of the 
teaching of Osteopathy, we numbered less 
than one hundred men and women. Then we 
were so few in numbers that we could all 
gather around his knee at one time either in 
the little cottage, in his home, upon the lawn 

132 



under the trees, on the steps of his front 
porch, anywhere and everywhere and drink 
wisdom from his own lips in all its purity and 
simplicity. We were so close to the fountain 
of truth from whence all this wondrous 
growth has emanated, that we could not only 
see the results obtained by the corrective pro- 
cesses beneath the scientific touch of his fin- 
gers, but we were forced to absorb from his 
mind a part, at least, of the inspiration of 
his thought, his genius and his power. 

Again, the results obtained at that time 
were not only an inspiration, but they were 
fraught with a knowledge to those who were 
privileged to see them, that then and there 
lay the foundation for future professional 
careers by which the pioneer practitioners of 
Osteopathy have contributed so much to the 
strength, the solidity and the impregnability 
of the position we occupy today. Then and 
there were instilled through contact the true 
principles of genuine Osteopathy that must 
and will stand throughout all ages as the 
foundation of the earth's greatest system of 
medicine. The idea was then in its simplest, 
crudest, yet purest form, but from that point 
in our history was thrown out an influence 
so deep rooted, so pure and so far reaching 
in effect that it is not only a part of us now, 
but is destined to live on and on forever. 

Then we were a mere handful; now we 
are numbered by the thousands. Then one 
college upon the face of the earth; now some 
eight or ten. Then our classes for matricula- 

133 



tion numbered but a few, now they run into 
the hundreds. Then one man with a very few 
assistant taught all there were to teach, now 
it takes hundreds to supply the demand. 
Then there were no practitioners anywhere 
but at Kirksville and the hopeless cases of 
all the earth contributed their share to make 
Kirksville and Dr. Still famous. Now our 
practitioners are scattered all over the world. 
Then the eyes of the public were centered 
here and the results obtained were given 
world-wide comment and notice. Now, good 
results are being obtained wherever Osteo- 
paths are located and our good results are so 
common that they are expected and people 
are disappointed if they are not obtained. 
Then when people came to Kirksville for 
treatment, it was Dr. Still who cured them, 
whether one of his sons treated them or one 
of the assistants. Now the results have be- 
come so common that little notice is taken of 
the most seemingly miraculous cures. 

Then there was not a spot on earth where 
a graduated Osteopath could practice his 
chosen profession as a law abiding citizen, 
according to the interpretation of the then 
existing medical laws. Now almost every 
state of the union recognizes us with some 
form of legislative enactment, with many a 
splendid law to our credit. This, too, may 
be said of several foreign provinces. Then 
the combined influences of the earth seemed 
against us. Now, we are welcomed every- 
where, in the home, in the church, the local 

134 



community, the state, yea, even by the na- 
tions of the earth as a factor for good. The 
press was a silent factor so far as we were 
concerned, unless occasionally when we 
were made the butt of their ridicule. Today, 
column after column is given to us in the 
great papers of this country, clothed in terms 
most complimentary for our work. And the 
best periodicals now give us page after page 
of the most readable, educational articles, en- 
lightening the whole world as regards our 
profession and our progress. Then there 
could be no systematized organization for 
the promulgation of our work; we were so 
few, we could only cluster around this spot 
hovering in close contact with the original 
center. But now we have our local, our 
state and our national organizations that 
are proving a wonderful factor in our 
growth. 

Whenever I hear people talk of shoals 
ahead or dangers coming, I cannot help but 
feel that if they could only have had ac- 
curate knowledge of all the history of the 
origin and growth of Osteopathy, they could 
not possibly feel that way, for there have 
been so many things that could not but 
make the men who stood with their fingers 
upon the pulse of this great movement know 
that the Master Mind of this universe was 
guiding its course. It was true "Then" and 
it is equally true "Now". 



135 



Vhe father 
of Osteopathy 



{Reprinted by permission from the Fra.j 
August, 1909. 



It was my good fortune, or bad fortune, to introduce 
Osteopathy in its swaddling clothes— a good sized baby boy 
with strong lungs. It has talked to the people of the 
principles that govern animal life, which, no doubt, are as 
the days of Eternity.— A. T. Still. 



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PHOTO BY BEREMAN 



THE "OLD DOCTOR" AT EIGHTY-TWO YEARS 
"I am still studying Osteopathy." 



The Father of Osteopathy. 

By Elbert Hubbard. 

I have been out in Missouri, the state 
where people demand visual demon- 
stration. 

At Kirksville, I met the father and 
founder of Osteopathy. His name is Dr. An- 
drew Taylor Still. Dr. Still lives in a forest 
but the world has made a path to his door. 
He is eighty years old, but looks sixty. He 
is tall, lanky, angular, homely and even 
chews infinite tobacco. 

He was burning brush on his farm when 
I found him. His trousers were tucked in his 
boots, he wore a blue flannel shirt and his 
big brown hands were the hands of Esau. 
When a boy called him to come to the college 
to give a lecture, he went just as he was with- 
out one plea. 

Dr. Still looks the workingman — the 
toiler — one who goes forth to his labor un- 
til the evening. 

The Doctor thinks he is a backwoods- 
man. That is where he plays to the gallery of 
his psychic self. He has posed so long that 

139 



his pose is absolutely natural. Therefore he 
is not a poser. 

His outside is rough, brusque, but all 
this seeming coarseness masks a very tender 
heart. His mind is receptive, sensitive, alert, 
open to all impressions of earth, air, sky and 
all living things. 

Dr. Still resembles Tolstoi in his habits, 
in his looks and in his independent, fighting 
attitude of mind. In his youth, he would 
have been a dangerous man to oppose in a 
physical way. Had he lived in the Far West, 
the butt of his pistol would have been well 
notched. Now the plane has shifted from the 
physical to the mental. His only weapons are 
ideas. 

Yet here is the father of Osteopathy, 
the man who has been, and is, a very im- 
portant factor in destroying the medical 
fetich that once held us all in bonds. 

Like Tolstoi, Dr. Still would give away 
all his money, if he could. He probably 
knows nothing about his financial affairs. If 
he wants money, he asks his wife for it, or 
his son. It will be remembered that when the 
wife of Tolstoi tried to have him adjudged 
insane because he was giving away his prop- 
erty, the Court ruled thus: "A man who 
gives away his money is not necessarily any 
more insane than a man who keeps to him- 
self all the money he can get. ' ' I have a sus- 
picion that Dr. Still's indifference to finan- 
ces arises from a firm faith in the ability of 
his wife and children to look after these 

140 



things for him. Here again is the uncon- 
scious playing of a part. The man gets others 
to do his work. 

Were he actually as innocent and ignor- 
ant as he appears, this big and prosperous 
institution would not have grown up around 
him. Also if he were a pretender, a fakir, a 
four-flusher, it never would have evolved. 
This man is absolutely honest, but he is not 
so lacking in worldly wisdom as he thinks he 
is. 

He has the "Healing Touch.' ' 

What is the "Healing Touch: 1" 

Bless my soul — I do not know. 

But I do know that every little while, 
all down through history, there have been 
men who, by the laying on of hands, could 
make the lame to walk, the blind to see and 
the deaf to hear. 

Osteopathy is nominally the science of 
the bones. Disease comes from mal-adjust- 
ments — a pressure on nerve substance by 
bone substance. Through manipulation a 
right adjustment is brought about, nerves 
act normally, circulation is equalized, the 
secretions flow, elimination follows — the 
man is well. 

Dr. Still was almost alone when, thirty 
years ago, he lifted a stern, warning voice 
against drugs, calling attention to the fact 
that, while the drug had a direct or primary 
effect which is known, it also has a secondary 
effect which cannot be foretold. Very natur- 
ally, the medics said things about Dr. Still 

141 



and not being able to meet his arguments, 
contented themselves by calling him bad 
names. The gentlest aspersion of the be- 
whiskered and spectacled ones was to say he 
was "crazy." 

Now Dr. Still has won. He is rich, he is 
honored and he is beloved. He is thought 
well of in his own town. The man who earns 
all the money he wants, who works with his 
own hands, who sleeps and eats well and who 
is generous and kindly isn't exactly insane, 
even though he doesn't dance on order of 
Madam Grundy. 

While Osteopathy is the science of a 
right adjustment of the bones, it is also very 
much more. It would be silly to suppose that 
a man who would overeat or overstimulate 
and who was hotly intent on getting money 
without earning it, could go to an Osteopath 
and get permanent relief from his physical 
disabilities. 

Osteopathy as taught at Kirkville seems 
to be the science of common sense. It is based 
on simple honesty. You consult and advise 
with the patient. You take him into your 
confidence and secure his co-operation. Neu- 
rology plays a big part in all diseases and 
this is fully recognized. 

At Kirksville, no prescriptions are 
written in Latin. The patient is a pupil of 
his physician — a student of health. The pre- 
scription is understood. He is given lessons 



142 



in prophylaxis and is told that at last the 
case lies largely in his own hands. 

There is a Pauline Osteopathy, practic- 
ed by zealous wise-heimers who claim to have 
discovered the secrets of life and death. All 
noble truth suffers thus from some who ad- 
vocate it and get it at second hand. I meet 
lawbreakers constantly who think they are 
just like me. Osteopathy has suffered from 
its friends. 

Dr. Still is a manifestation of the great 
unrest and challenge of the time. His in- 
fluence in breaking up the ankylosis of ortho- 
dox medicine has been beneficent and pro- 
found and as such his name will live in his- 
tory. 



jfn ^Appreciation 



An address delivered at the unveiling of the portrait pre- 
sented Dr. Still on his eightieth birthday by the Alumni 
Association of the Amercan School of Osteopathy. 



(Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy^) 
September, 1908 



Make no assertion previous to investigation. — A. T. Still' 



M 



Dr. Andrew Taylor Still. 

By J. L. Holloway, M. S., D. O. 

WIEN Lew Wallace gave to the world 
his masterpiece, "Ben Hur," he 
dedicated it, "To the wife of my 
youth/ ' This seemed misleading and many 
took it for granted that she was no longer by 
his side. When the second edition came out 
he added the words, "Who still abides with 
me." As I stand before this picture tonight, 
a tribute from those scattered over many 
states, I turn from it to look into the kind, 
honest countenance of the original ' ' who still 
abides' ' with us. Eipe with honors, as with 
age, he moves among us still — the real man, 
not one whose virtues are canonized in cold 
type, nor whose personality is shrouded in 
years grown gray with age. Seldom does it 
happen that the man who refuses to conform 
to the thoughts of his time, or doff his cap 
to the dogmas of the day, but uncomplaining- 
ly accepts professional and social ostracism 
rather than surrender his convictions of 
truth, seldom does it happen for such an one 
to live to become the recipient of popular ap- 
plause and the center of a devotion that time 
cannot mar nor death itself diminish. 

Witness the long line of illustrious dead 

147 



who came not into their merited reward of 
historic renown until time had made clear 
the truths for which they had contended and 
the principles for which they were condem- 
ned. Socrates drank the fatal cup rather 
than yield truth. Columbus died an outcast. 
Galileo was condemned for the declaration 
that the earth moves on its axis. John Huss 
burned at the stake and a host of others bear 
mute but unmistakable testimony to the 
world's ingratitude for deliverance from the 
thraldom of ignorance. But today, we come 
to lay our garlands of love, not upon the 
broken shaft of a hero long since gone, but 
at the feet of one we know, whose searching 
eyes look into our own and whose heart 
beats in unison with ours for a perfected 
knowledge of a science which his genius 
brought to light. The circumstances of the 
rise of this man are really wonderful. The 
scriptural truth "He that debase th himself, 
the same shall be exalted," finds unique il- 
lustration in this simple, yet profound man's 
career. With no thought of future greatness, 
with no desire to sit in kingly places, no am- 
bition to take his place by the side of great 
discoverers or profound scientists, he 
wrought, in his own inimitable way, to find 
truth and, having found it, men and women 
are rising up everywhere to call him blessed. 
Eeared on the frontier at a time when 
the energies were largely consumed in the 
fight for a living, when long hours and hard 
work were the heritage of every man, when 

148 



educational advantages were few and profes- 
sional training limited, the outlook for fame 
was by no means roseate. Endowed with a 
keen scent for truth, a constancy that scorned 
to waver, a courage that quailed not before 
opinion, a sympathy that had the white glow 
of love whenever human ills touched his life, 
this devotee at Nature's shrine stood out 
separate and apart from his fellows as one 
crying in the wilderness to return to Nature 's 
ways. It was this rugged independence, this 
high and holy zeal for truth which impelled 
him forward in the stress of storm when 
friends deserted, want walked by his side 
and poverty was his portion. 

We shall never know the anguish his 
spirit suffered, for no pen can ever tell the 
graphic story of the heart 's struggle in those 
dark days when he was an outcast from so- 
cial and professional circles, a supposedly 
addle-pated bone-setter, with his sack of 
bones, a homeless wanderer possessed, they 
said, of a strange hallucination, finding 
neither sympathy nor support. But he had a 
vision of a great truth and God gave him the 
purpose to follow it. Genius never tracks the 
multitude. It blazes out new pathways. It 
surrenders to no dogma and craves no indul- 
gences. It sets itself to the accomplishment 
of the impossible from the standpoint of the 
laity. And so the fundamental tenet of this 

149 



new therapy; to-wit, perverted function, is 
the result of structural perversion, or as he 
himself puts it, ' * The rule of the artery is su- 
preme, ' ' is brought forth as the child of his 
own brain, a child whose infancy met with no 
welcome from the learned. They spurned it 
as a bastard, ridiculed it as a mountebank, 
denounced it is a heretic and gibbetted it as 
a malefactor. But error ensconced even be- 
hind the Goliath of hoary dogma is no 
match for the stripling David panoplied in 
the simple garb of truth. 

Osteopathy, under the inspiration and 
impulse of its master genius, its great discov- 
erer, goes marching on from victory to vic- 
tory. All hail the man who gave it to the 
world. If you love courage, he is the embod- 
iment of it; if you hate sham and hypocrisy, 
he is your friend; if you admire firmness of 
purpose, where in these modern days can you 
find one who follows the pole star of reason 
with less wavering. The simplicity of his 
life mocks subterfuge; his devotion to truth 
is the anchor of his life; his sympathies are 
as deep as his heart is unfathomable; his 
honesty is as unyielding as the giant oak 
whose roots are anchored in the eternal 
rocks. How grandly sweet and how sweetly 
grand at the close of four score years, he 
can stand, after the hard struggles of the 
past, amidst his children who come to do him 

150 



honor. He needs no panegyric here to make 
his virtues known for they are written on 
our hearts in letters of enduring light. Out 
over this broad, free land thousands upon 
thousands who have never looked into his 
honest face, nor felt the thrill of his benedic- 
tion, are calling him blessed for the work he 
has done. 



Brays 



{Reprinted by permission from the Philadelphia Journal 
of Osteopathy.*) 

June, 1905 






A theory may do for today and be a clog to the foot of 
progress tomorrow. — A. T. Still. 



Dr. Osier on Drugs. 

WILLIAM Osier, M. D., is no doubt 
familiar to every one, by name at 
least, through the extensive discus- 
sion given some of his views recently in the 
newspapers. Dr. Osier though only fifty- 
seven years old, just entering the prime of 
life, has earned distinction and the reputa- 
tion, both here and abroad, of being a most 
skillful practitioner, as well as one of the 
ablest of living investigators. His appoint- 
ment as Eegius Professor of Medicine in the 
University of Oxford, England, is one of 
special fitness. His ' ' Textbook on the Theory 
and Practice of Medicine" was the fruit of 
ten years of teaching and practice and is con- 
sidered the foremost book on this subject in 
our language. Below are a few quotations 
from this book concerning the treatment for 
various diseases. 

Typhoid Fever. "The profession was 
long in learning that typhoid fever is not a 
disease to be treated mainly with drugs. In 
hospital practice, medicines are not often 
needed. A great majority of my patients do 
not receive a dose." 

Scarlet Fever. "Ordinary cases do not 

155 



require any medicine. Medical antipyretics 
(lever mixtures) are not of much service in 
comparison with cold water. Many specifics 
have been vaunted in scarlet fever, but they 
are all useless/' 

Measles. " Confinement to bed in a well 
ventilated room and a light diet are the only, 
measures necessary in cases of uncomplicated 
measles." 

Whooping Cough. "The medicinal 
treatment of whooping cough is most unsat- 
isfactory. 

Lobar Pneumonia. "Pneumonia is a 
self limited disease which can neither be ab- 
orted nor cut short by any known means at 
our command. Even under the most favor- 
able circumstances, it may terminate abrupt- 
ly and naturally without a dose of medicine 
having been administered. There is no spec- 
ific treatment for pneumonia. The young 
practitioner may bear in mind that patients 
are more often damaged than helped by the 
promiscuous drugging which is still only too 
prevalent." 

Erysipelas. "The disease is self limit- 
ed and a large majority of the cases get well 
without any internal medication. I can speak 
definitely on this point, having at the Phila- 
delphia Hospital treated many cases in this 
way. ' ' 

Eheumatic Fever. "Medicines have lit- 
tle or no control over the duration or course 
of the disease. Salicyl compounds, which 
were regarded so long as specific, are now 

156 



known to act chiefly by relieving pain. R. 
P. Howard's elaborate analysis shows that 
they do not influence the duration of the 
disease. Nor do they prevent the occurrence 
of cardiac complications, while under their 
use, relapses are considerably more frequent 
than in other methods of treatment." 

Tuberculosis. "The cure of tubercu- 
losis is a question of nutrition; digestion and 
assimilation control the situation. No med- 
ical agents have any special or peculiar ac- 
tion upon tuberculous processes.' ' 

Chronic Rheumatism. " Internal reme- 
dies are of little service." 

Diabetes. "Medical treatment; this is 
most unsatisfactory and no one drug appears 
to have a direct curative influence. ' ' 

Appendicitis. "There is no medical 
treatment of appendicitis. There are reme- 
dies which will allay the pain, but there are 
none capable in any way of controlling the 
course of the disease." 

Exopthalmic Goitre. "Medicinal meas- 
ures are notoriously uncertain." 

Paralysis. "The disease is incurable. 
I have never seen the slightest benefit from 
drugs or electricity. Probably the most use- 
ful means is systematic massage." 

Sciatica. "Antipyrin, antifebrin, and 
quinine are of doubtful benefit. Electricity 
is an uncertain remedy." 

Neurasthenia. "Treatment by drugs 
should be avoided as much as possible. The 
family physician is often responsible for the 

157 



development of a drug habit. I have been 
repeatedly shocked by the loose, careless way 
in which physicians inject morphia for a sim- 
ple headache or a mild neuralgia. ' ' 

Pericarditis. * ' The patient should 
have absolute quiet, mentally and bodily, so 
as to reduce to a minimum the heart's action. 
Drugs given for this purpose, such as aconite 
or digitalis, are of doubtful utility." 

Acute Bright 's Disease "No remedies, 
so far as known, control directly the changes 
which are going on in the kidneys.' ' 

The above quotations are not given with 
any feeling of antagonism or disrespect to 
the medical profession. It merely shows 
that drugs are not a necessity in dealing with 
certain diseases. Dr. Osier recommends in 
all these cases, proper diet, hot and cold ap- 
plications of various kinds, hydropathy, ex- 
ercise, rest etc. All of these natural agencies 
are employed by the Osteopath. More, he 
gets at the cause of the trouble. The most we 
can hope for a drug to do is to give tempor- 
ary relief, but this relief is too frequently at 
the expense of so much vital force that, in the 
ultimate effect, it is after all harmful. 



TJhe Evolution 
Of an Osteopath 



{Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy.') 
July, 1003. 



O Lord, grease onr heels with the oil of energy that we 
may slip forward a little. Keep all grease from our toes; 
we want them dry and sharp so they will hold fast to every 
inch of progress cur greasv heels have gained for us. 
—A. T. Still. 



The Evolution of an[Osteo- 
path. 

By E. C. White, M. D., D. O. 

THAT a physician of the "old school" 
should give up his drugs and betake 
himself to a method nearer akin to 
work is a matter of great wonder to the 
average mortal. The action of drugs is not 
understood by him, therefore any person who 
is supposed to know how they work is looked 
upon as a superior being. It is very hard for 
most people to tear themselves away from 
the beliefs that have been implanted in the 
human mind for ages. Alternating with 
their mother's milk, they have taken sooth- 
ing syrups and various decoctions supposed 
to be good for their numerous ills. Getting 
older, they learn that rightly chosen medicine 
will cure disease. To them "drugology" is 
worth a life time of study and is a great fac- 
tor in healing human ailments. Hence the 
1 i whys and wherefores ' ' of the change from 
"drug doctor' ' to Osteopath cannot fail to be 
of interest to reasoning people. 

The writer is the son of a homeopathic 
physician and was raised in the belief that 

161 



"like cures like", if taken in small enough 
doses. He received his medical education in 
that school which professes allegiance to no 
one theory of healing, but proudly boasts 
that it is a "free lover" in the therapeutic 
fields. He has had ample opportunity to be- 
come familiar with the drug methods of 
healing. 

Having come to the conclusion that the 
giving of drugs is in most cases, at 
least, futile, if not harmful, the writer 
was prepared for the acceptance of a 
more rational and satisfactory system 
of healing. While at Columbia, Mo., we 
often heard of Osteopathy and the won- 
derful cures accredited to it. 

The theory seemed more reasonable than 
that advanced by any other school of medi- 
cine. It is particularly fascinating to con- 
sider the human body as a complex machine 
and that most diseases have mal-adjustment 
as the causative or perpetuating factor. We 
came to the conclusion that if Osteopathy 
were as effective in practice as it is beautiful- 
ly logical in theory, all other therapeutic 
agents cannot compare with it. 

After three years experience, we find 
that our respect for this discovery of Dr. A. 
T. Still 's has greatly increased; it is wider in 
its application and more wonderful in its 
results than we had ever dreamed. 

It cannot be denied that, unhindered, 
Nature has the power to handle all diseases 
and it is found that this power is most often 

162 



interfered with by some contracted or mis- 
placed tissue which obstructs the flow of 
blood, lymph and nerve force; the essentials 
for the correct functioning of the body. 

The Osteopath does not claim that every 
disease is due primarily to osseous, muscular 
or ligamentous lesions, but that these malad- 
justments have a vast influence in retarding 
or preventing recovery — be they primary or 
secondary. 

The growth of Osteopathy has been 
marvelous. No school of medicine has ever 
made such wonderful strides. This progress 
is due in part to the inefficiency of 
regular practice and partly to the remark- 
able success of osteopathic methods. Our 
practice is based upon an intimate and ex- 
haustive knowledge of anatomy and physiol- 
ogy and as there is yet a great deal unknown 
in these fields we are proportionately handi- 
capped in our work. As knowledge increases, 
our success will become greater. 



Tjhe Serm U/ieory 



{Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy.) 
November, 1908. 



Has chemistry ever detected a failure in the normal pro- 
cesses in the fluids of life? Has it ever found imperfection 
in the fluid itself, or in any part or principle of the whole 
economv of life? — A . T. Still. 



Relation of Osteopathy to 
the Germ Theory. 

By R. E. Hamilton, M. Pd., D. O. 

PRACTICALLY all the demonstrated 
facts of bacteriology are in strict ac- 
cord with the principles of Osteopathy 
as laid down by its founder and each year 
the theories regarding the cure of diseases 
in which bacteria play a part come closer to 
osteopathic ideas. 

In the present theory of bacterial infec- 
tion, the following facts are well established. 
Of the countless varieties of bacteria only a 
few are capable of producing or influencing 
the course of disease. The conditions for in- 
fection are virulence of the germ, large num- 
bers and weakness of the tissues; this latter 
is in most cases a cardinal condition, for it is 
now proved that the tissues and fluids of 
the body are normally resistant to the action 
of bacteria and that bacteria may scarcely 
ever find lodgment in healthy tissue. This 
is in complete accord with the osteopathic 
idea that injury to an organ may come only 
through obstruction to blood and nerve sup- 

167 



ply (including disturbances in other parts of 
the body) lack of use, over use, or direct in- 
jury from external forces. 

It is perhaps true that the virulence of 
germs may be such that a few of them may 
set up disturbances in a healthy organism, 
but these cases as disease producers are un- 
doubtedly rare. Some of the conditions low- 
ering the normal resistance of the body to 
germ diseases are underfeeding and feeding 
upon foods lacking in some element neces- 
sary to the body; prolonged exposure to 
cold; intoxication by alcohol or other drugs; 
traumatic injury; severe hemorrhage, fati- 
gue, depressing hygienic conditions and dis- 
ease. 

How to Prevent Infectious Diseases 

Eeasoning from the above given causes 
of bacterial diseases, the answer to the ques- 
tion, How to prevent them? is simple. First, 
keep the body in the best possible condition 
and avoid the chance for contact with dis- 
ease producing germs. 

To maintain the health of the body, the 
well known rules of hygiene must be observ- 
ed. Eat the things which are known to agree 
with your, digestion; exercise moderately; 
rest and sleep regularly; avoid excesses and 
exposures and have corrected bodily disturb- 
ances due to the accidents of life. 

Since nearly all disease germs flourish in 
dead animal and vegetable matter, obvious- 
ly, cleanliness of person and surroundings is 

168 






the best means of avoiding contact with in- 
fectious germs. 

The approved methods of removing 
and destroying infectious material are by the 
use of soap and water, exposure to heat, ex- 
posure to sunlight, and the use of chemicals. 
All these are effective under the proper con- 
ditions so long as the germs are outside the 
body. 

The Cure of Germ Diseases 

Ever since the discovery of disease 
producing bacteria, physicians have worked 
eagerly to find some drug which would kill 
disease germs after they had lodged in the 
tissues. On account of the numerous report- 
ed internal antiseptics, there is a rather firm- 
ly grounded belief in the minds of the ma- 
jority of the laity that drugs are able to kill 
infectious germs in the body substance. 
This belief has also been held by part at 
least of the physicians, but is being rapidly 
abandoned. A few quotations from the writ- 
ings of Sir Almroth E. Wright, one of the 
greatest bacteriologists of today, will show 
the present status of antiseptic dosage. 

"For some time past it has been all but 
universally recognized that it is futile to at- 
tempt to check bacterial growth in the inter- 
ior of the organism by our present antisep- 
tics which have a greater affinity for 
constituent elements of the body than they 
have for any bacteria." 

"Significant in this connection appears 

169 



to me the fact that antiseptics are now by 
general consent abandoned in the treatment 
of ordinary surgical wounds. Significant also 
is it that the practice of introducing anti- 
septics into abscess ' cavities, which was erst- 
while so common, is now less and less fre- 
quently resorted to. Significant again is it 
that the treatment by antiseptics in case of 
bacterial invasions of mucus membranes is 
today more and more frequently followed up 
by curetting, scraping and so-called radical 
operations. Above all, significant is it that 
so distinguished a dermatologist as Sabour- 
aud should sum up the results of antiseptic 
treatment of bacterial disease of the skin as 
follows: 'Curious indeed is the failure of an- 
tiseptics in connection with the. treatment of 
bacterial diseases of the skin. Quite colossal 
were the expectations which were entertain- 
ed with regard to what would be effected by 
these. What antiseptics have accomplished 
by their agency is in point of fact next to 
nothing. The results which have been ob- 
tained in connection with pulmonary infec- 
tions by antiseptic inhalations and in connec- 
tion with bacterial infections of the genito- 
urinary passages by " urinary " and other 
antiseptics are, I am persuaded, neither bet- 
ter nor worse than those which have been 
obtained in connection with diseases of the 
skin. Now all of this failure of antiseptics 
is, I am persuaded, only what might have 
been expected. ' " 

170 



The Body's Defense 

Having seen that germicidal drugs are 
worse than useless for curing infectious dis- 
eases, let us examine the defense of the body 
against bacteria and their poisons. Most 
noticeable of the body's germ destroyers are 
the white cells of the blood, the action of 
some of which — 'the phagocytes — is to ingest 
and destroy the invading organism. There 
are also some tissue cells which possess this 
property. But the body has other defense in! 
the activity of substances detrimental to the 
growth of bacteria and antidotal to their tox- 
ic substances. (See the theories of Metchni- 
koff, Buchner, Ehrlich and others.) All ex- 
periment goes to show that the more nearly 
normal the body organism is, the more of 
these "anti" substances can be produced 
for defense against disease. 

Artificial Serums 

It has somewhat recently been discover- 
ed that in defense against mild infections, 
antitoxins were produced in excess in the 
blood and many experiments have been per- 
formed for the purpose of determining if 
this excessive activity of the blood could not 
be made use of by producing "animal made" 
antidotes for bacterial poisons. With a few 
exceptions, these experiments have been 
failures. The apparent success of diphtheria 

171 



antitoxin has encouraged great hopes in this 
line of work. 

Contrary to the general idea, the theory 
of antitoxins is not in conflict with osteo- 
pathic theories of disease (which, by the way 
have from the first recognized the importance 
of antidotes to poisons), the osteopathic idea 
being, as before stated, that the body fur- 
nished its own cure. If we are able to make 
one animal manufacture an antidote to bac- 
terial poisons for another one, we have sim- 
ply gained a new antidote to poisons. It is 
not within the province of this article to dis- 
cuss serum therapy, but it should be added 
that the question of antitoxins is much 
more complicated than the uninitiated would 
suspect and there are many, and in some 
cases insurmountable, difficulties in the way 
of successful antitoxin application. 

The Rational Cure 

Taking into consideration the facts as 
above set forth, the physician is able to as- 
sist in the cure of infectious diseases by the 
following procedures: 

1. Placing the patient in the best hy- 
gienic surroundings with fresh air, quiet and 
rest (in acute cases.) 

2. Since nourishment is a factor in infec- 
tion, he may see that the patient gets the best 
food possible for his condition. 

172 



3. He should find and remove any other 
cause of weakness, so-called constitutional 
treatment. It is in this third condition that 
the Osteopath claims the superiority of his 
methods of handling cases of bacterial dis- 
eases, for we can find no physiologic reason 
for the administration of drugs for the pur- 
pose of effecting a cure. 



_ 



Vhe fiicoci 



(Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy. ) 
May, 1904. 



L,et the Osteopath follow the course of the blood from the 
heart to its destination and return, and remove all ob- 
structions, open all doors; for on it we depend for all the 
joys of perfect form and functioning, which is health. — 
A. T. Still. 



How Osteopathy Treats the 
Blood. 

By C. P. McConnell, D. O., M. D. 

USING a commercial phrase, the blood 
may be at par, or it may be below par, 
as to its real value to the bodily econ- 
omy. A person may be anemic when there 
is a diminshed quantity ©f blood, for ex- 
ample, from a hemorrhage, or the quality of 
the blood may not be normal, as from impair- 
ed digestion. It is well known that pure 
blood is an absolute essential for health. The 
blood is the medium whereby all organs and 
parts of the body are supplied with nourish- 
ment for repair and growth. 

The layman is fairly versed in anemia. 
He knows that it generally means a low 
grade quality of blood. When a physician in- 
forms a patient and he very frequently does, 
that he is anemic and needs building up, the 
patient is usually satisfied with the diagno- 
sis. Then comes the iron preparations adlib- 
itum as well as many other so-called " ton- 
ics, " to enforce a better character of blood, 
but the much abused blood too often sulks 

177 



and really pays no attention to the ' ' tonics. ' ' 
Why is it that the iron preparations, 
for example, are absolutely useless when the 
blood analysis shows a deficiency of the ele- 
ment iron? For the simple reason that nine 
times out of ten anemia is not a disease but 
a symptom of some digestive disorder, as is 
a pain a symptom of some nerve disorder, 
and more iron is not required in the digest- 
ive tract, if the diet is right, but rather the 
ability to assimilate more iron into the sys- 
tem is lacking. Thus, it is at once se^xi that 
we must go back of the symptom (an expres- 
sion of disease) anemia, and seek the cause, 
although the symptom may be most pronoun- 
ced and overshadow all others. The various 
1 i tonics ' ' are well known to be empty dreams 
of past decades. The real tonics, outside of 
osteopathic treatment when indicated, are 
plenty of wholesome food, pure water, fresh 
air and exercise. 

There are fi\ T e ways, at least, by which 
the blood is influenced and treated by Osteo- 
pathy. 

First: General Treatment 

It is a common statement of the prospec- 
tive osteopathic patient that he can see how 
Osteopathy can improve the circulation, but 
to attempt to cure an organic disease seems 
ridiculous. From his limited viewpoint, of 
course, the utterance is a sincere one. The 
patient realizes that any exercise or activity 
of the body tissues aids the circulation, and, 

178 



to him at first, Osteopathy appeals as a var- 
iety of passive movements. The fact of the 
matter is, the general osteopathic treatment 
is less potent and precise than most of the 
other methods of blood treatment. 

The general treatment tends to equalize 
the blood distribution by aiding the heart 
action, drawing blood to weakened areas and 
dispersing blood from congested tissues. 
This treatment affects principally the circu- 
lation of the blood as to its distribution, a 
quantitative effect, and but little and that 
indirectly, in a qualitative manner. 

Second: Local Treatment 

The various local treatments for treat- 
ing the blood are purely treatments of distri- 
bution, that is, lessening congestion or reduc- 
ing inflammation, and increasing the blood to 
a weakened area or organ. To relieve the con- 
gestive headache, the congestive liver, an in- 
flamed ovary or a sprained ankle requires a 
definite, specific treatment as and where in- 
dicated. The same is true to tone up an aton- 
ized stomach, a paralyzed muscle or a with- 
ered limb. 

Third: Keflex Blood Influences 

A congested brain, an inflamed eyelid or 
some poorly nourished organ may be the re- 
sult of a reflex vaso-motor neurosis. That 
is, the little nerves that control the calibre 
of the blood vessels may be affected reflexly 
from some diseased organ or tissue, the same 

179 



as a pain may be a reflex symptom over a 
sensory nerve. Cold hands and feet are of- 
ten reflex va so-motor neuroses from indiges- 
tion. Cure the indigestion and the source of 
nervous irritation to the va so-motor nerves 
of the hands and feet will disappear, allow- 
ing the blood vessels to normally dilate and 
act, consequently a freer blood distribution. 
This kind of interference to the blood supply 
may take place in any tissue or organ of the 
body. 

Fourth: Digestive and Assimilative In- 
fluences 

We have now come to one of the most 
important methods of blood treatment. Here 
we really have to do with a blood disease. 
To influence the blood organically, to give 
the patient a rich, normal blood, has been 
the medical problem for ages. 

Osteopathic treatment, unquestionably, 
offers more relief to the anemic patient than 
all other methods combined several times 
over. One important way the blood is ren- 
dered anemic, that is, poor and deficient in 
red blood corpuscles, is from indigestion. The 
stomach, intestines, pancreas and liver not 
functioning normally, the intestinal juices 
not digesting the food completely, the tissues 
of the stomach and intestines not taking up 
the digested particles of food wholly and 
freely, and the blood not assimilating the 
same as it should, result in non-assimilation, 
mal-nutrition, in a word, anemia. Then, 

ISO 



what must be done? Tracing back the nerve 
supply of these digestive organs to their 
centers, seeking out the cause of the block- 
ade of normal nerve impulses, and removing 
the obstructions is what must be done. The 
Osteopath does this every day of the week in 
his practice. He finds that weakness and 
curvatures of the spinal column, misplaced 
ribs, and contractured muscles are frequent 
sources of the blockade to digestive nerves 
and dependent blood vessels. His work is to 
relieve and readjust the crippled parts — and 
it is work that he accomplishes most success- 
fully. 

Absurd, certainly, to drug and dose the 
digestive tract proper when the cause is in- 
variably further back, that is, in the nerves 
and blood vessels controlling the digestive 
functions. The digestive organs are below 
par as an effect, the assimilation is poor as 
an effect although one point farther removed 
from the cause, and the anemia is the remote 
effect that caps the climax. Simply a chain 
of pathological conditions, each symptom or 
condition representing a link, although the 
different links do not necessarily complete 
an unbroken circle, is represented. There 
is an origin, one link acting as a causative 
factor. 

Always give the anemic a liberal supply 
of good, wholesome, well-cooked food (there 
is plenty of iron, etc., in the food; it is a ques- 
tion of ability to assimilate it on the part of 

181 



the digestive tract) pure water, fresh air in 
abundance. 

Fifth: The 'Blood Elaborating Glands 

There are certain organs in the body as 
the spleen, adrenals, thyroid gland, thymus 
gland, pituitary body, etc., whose functions 
are little understood, although it is well 
known that they influence and elaborate the 
blood. It is not necessary in this article to 
go into any detail concerning facts as well 
as various theories about the functions of 
these organs. Suffice it to say, that they are 
organs that have secretions and functions 
that profoundly affect the health of the blood, 
and as a consequence other tissues indirectly. 
Osteopathy treats these organs and their dis- 
orders successfully, and thus the blood. 

Osteopathy also offers much along the 
line of treatment of rendering and keeping 
the blood germicidal. Consideration of the 
germicidal constituents of the blood, or alex- 
ins, is important but hardly comes within 
the scope of this article. 

An equivalent to health is pure blood, 
normal in amount and freely circulating. 



Uraurnaiisms 



{Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy .) 
November. 1902. 



I have found and repeatedly demonstrated that the body is 
a machine and can vindicate all its claims for health in the 
hands of the man or woman who knows the normal and the 
abhormal. — A. T. Still. 



Osteopathy in Traumatisms. 

By E. C. White, M. D., D. O. 

I had the pleasure not long ago of talking 
with a prominent surgeon about Osteo- 
pathy. He admitted that our practice is 
undoubtedly of great use in "certain spinal 
troubles,' ' but doubted its efficacy in many 
of the diseases we are credited with curing. 
He also spoke of that class of troubles des- 
ignated by the text books as traumatisms (or 
injuries) and wanted to know if we could im- 
prove upon the methods of the up-to-date 
surgeon — could treatment of the spine take 
a stride in advance of the application of 
massage, hot or cold water, rest, electricity 
and the use of the various poultices and lini- 
ments. 

It was simply the old question: "Is Os- 
teopathy of use in acute cases V My answer 
was, "Yes." 

The relation of osteopathic treatment in 
traumatisms is not the labored effort of our 
impracticable theorist, but the logical de- 
ductions from facts, anatomical, physiolog- 
ical and clinical. 

I speak more particularly in this article 

185 



of traumatisms of the softer tissues due to 
external violence, or muscular action; such 
as sprains, bruises, traumatic synovitis. It 
will be well before taking up the cases to 
state some well proven facts. 

First, the integrity of all tissues de- 
pends upon the proper supply of nerve force, 
a sufficient amount of good arterial blood and 
unimpeded venous and lymphatic drainage. 
Any interference with these essentials to the 
well being of tissues renders them more sus- 
ceptible to injury and when injured, retards 
or entirely prevents their recovery. 

Second, these interferences with the 
well-being of a part are chiefly due to a dis- 
turbed relationship of some of the body tis- 
sues. A bone or tendon is slightly out of its 
proper position, thus directly or indirectly 
impinging upon nerve fibers, blood or lymph 
vessels. These slight displacements may be 
due to sudden force or to the constant pull- 
ing of a contra ctured muscle. 

Third, in ninety-nine cases out of a 
hundred, these mal-adjustments are to be 
found along or in close relationship to the 
spine. When a break occurs in a telegraph 
line, the mind of the lineman goes over the 
route and he decides upon the most probable 
place for accident. While he is aware that a 
break is not impossible anywhere, yet he 
knows from experience that the trouble is 
most likely to occur just where the line pass- 
es through a forest, some of the trees of 
which may be blown down by a storm carry- 

186 



ing the wire with them. So the Osteopath 
knows that trouble can occur anywhere 
along the line of the vessels and nerves, but 
experience teaches him that the interference 
or break is to be most likely found in close 
vicinity to the bones which make up the 
spinal column. 

Fourth, it is well proven that irritation 
to a part causes reflex contraction of muscles. 
Muscular contractions, the result of reflex ac- 
tion are very often of longer duration than 
those due to direct stimulation to motor ner- 
ves. In fact such contractions often last for 
days, weeks and even months and years. So 
it is that injuries very often cause disturb- 
ances remote from their site which in turn 
prevent or retard recovery of the primarily 
injured tissues. 

These traumatic cases may be divided 
into three classes. 

First, those due to injuries at ike loca- 
tion of the pain, heat, redness and swelling, 
with a predisposing cause elsewhere; which 
is illustrated by the case of a gentleman, 
about forty years of age, who injured his 
back by lifting a heavy box. The back both- 
ered him a great deal for a year. He noticed 
while taking a bath that there were "sore 
spots' ' around his right knee. 

One day, while riding his wheel, he was 
thrown, badly hurting his knee. A physician 
was called and "everything was done for 
him." But still for weeks he was unable to 

187 



use his leg. An attempt to do so caused in- 
tense pain and a return of the swelling. For 
two weeks after the injury he was unable to 
sleep without morphine. 

Finally an Osteopath was called. He 
could find nothing wrong with the knee, but 
found a twist of the lumbar vertebrae. Treat- 
ment at the point of lesion made it possible 
for him to walk around the room for the first 
time in over a month. A week's daily treat- 
ment enabled him to go about his business 
without any trouble from his knee. 

Second, those due to apparent injury at 
the site of pain, but with real injury remote, 
as in a case that came under my notice dur- 
ing a football game. One of the men while 
making a run with the ball fell suddenly to 
the ground writhing in agony. The right leg 
was flexed on the thigh and he complained of 
a terrible pain in the back of the thigh. An 
examination of that region showed that all 
the posterior thigh muscles were contracted. 
Stretching the sciatic nerve gave some relief 
from the pain and allowed the leg to be 
straightened. Hot water, massage and spinal 
treatment were applied, but the next morn- 
ing found him little better. A very careful 
examination was then made, revealing a 
twist to the right innominate bone. A strong 
treatment for the purpose of replacing the 
slipped bone gave instant relief. He was able 
to walk with comfort and the leg no longer 

183 



dragged. There was, however an occasional 
return of the trouble due to the strenuous- 
ness of football, yet the above treatment al- 
ways gave relief. 

Third, those due to injuries at the site of 
pain and without predisposing cause re- 
motely located, except reflexly, as when a 
young man taking part in a game of 
football had the misfortune to get his 
ankle badly twisted in a ' 'mix-up." He 
was examined on the field and no les- 
ion was found along the spine, and the 
muscles were soft and pliable. Examination 
at the training quarters after the game still 
showed no spinal lesion. Hot water was used 
followed by massage and ice packs. The 
next morning found him greatly improved, 
but the second morning he was worse and 
made no advance for three days. The spine 
was then examined and the muscles on the 
side of the injured ankle were found badly 
contracted, causing a marked spinal curve. 
Here undoubtedly was a case of reflex muscu- 
lar contracture following injury. The con- 
tractures were removed and his ankle was at 
once greatly improved. Daily treatment 
kept the nerves and vessels free from inter- 
ference and a very rapid recovery followed. 

While there is no doubt that the ordin- 
ary methods of treating traumatisms are of 
great benefit, still there is not the least shad- 

189 



ow of a doubt that osteopathic treatment is 
of more benefit than all the other methods 
taken together. 

The longer my experience, the more cer- 
tain I am that the discovery of the principles 
underlying Osteopathy and their application 
to the cure of diseases are epoch marking 
events in the history of medicine. 



«^f ^Delicate Question 



(Reprinted by permissiofi from Life.) 
September 28, 1908. 



A person may be very fluent in words and very foolish 
in practice. — A . T. Still. 



A Delicate Question. 

IS a man's first duty to his own family or 
to his client? 

Take for instance a patient — call him 
William — who is being treated for a disease 
considered incurable. His doctor, of the old 
school, tells him frankly and kindly that the 
best they can do is to hold the disease in 
check, prolong William's life, perhaps, and 
make his remaining days comfortable. 
While the treatment is going on, William be- 
gins to hear tales of what the Osteopaths are 
doing. His friends tell him of sudden cures of 
cases resembling his own. William hates 
quackery, but as he cannot ignore this testi- 
mony, he finally mentions the subject to his 
doctor. His doctor, a liberal minded man, 
tells William, regretfully that while the Os- 
teopaths, like other quacks, produce temp- 
orary results that amaze the ignorant, they 
work far more harm than good; that Osteo- 
pathy is merely a form of massage at best 
and that William's disease is a deeper mat- 

193 



ter. 'Besides the osteopathic treatment is 
rough and often dangerous. 

William is secretly relieved by this in- 
formation for he hates changes and has no 
use for all the new "pathies." 

But the surprising tales persist in reach- 
ing him. Even members of his own family 
relate extraordinary cures of seemingly 
hopeless cases, without drugs or surgery. 
Finally, to make a long story short, William 
who does want to live, visits an Osteopath. 
He is ashamed, but he does it. The theory 
and treatment, as explained to him, certain- 
ly seem rational. Moreover, he finds that 
these Osteopaths are curing cases much worse 
than his own. And when William himself is 
cured he blames the old school doctor for not 
sending him at once to an Osteopath. 

But is William just? 

Is it ever expected that a lawyer, a doc- 
tor, an architect or any man of standing shall 
say to his client, "Go to my rival. He is wis- 
er than I am. Give your money to him instead 
of to me!" 

In accusing the old school doctor of 
fraud, William is doubly unfair, as that doc- 
tor despises the Osteopath and honestly be- 
lieve? him a quack. And we all know how 
easy it is to believe what is most desirable. 

William argues, however, that the suc- 



194 



cess of Osteopathy now being common 
knowledge, when he pays for advice, the 
doctor should give whatever advice is most 
likely to lead to a cure. The doctor might 
argue that he gave William what William 
paid for, the best treatment he knew how to 
give. 

Which is right? 



9/so 2/our Reason 



{Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Osteopathy.') 
March, 1905 



Now, Lord, we beseech Thee, once in a great while to 
pummel our heads with the hail-stones of reason. — A. T. 
Hill. 



If Sick, Use Your Reason. 

By S. C. Matthews, D. O. 

WE ask "Why?" and "How!" and 
"What?" about everything else 
except sickness. About everything 
else we demand a reason, but with sick- 
ness and distress, we seek only relief. 
Relief, of course, is sufficient and if 
mere desire for a thing were all that 
is required to secure it, our hopes would 
be realized. But desired results follow only 
when the right means are employed. Sick- 
ness comes upon us, but there is always a 
cause for it. Recovery follows, not from our 
desire to be well, but from an employment 
of those means which lead to a removal of 
that cause. 

Osteopathy is attracting attention 
throughout the land because, in the treat- 
ment of the sick, superstition has been left 
entirely out of the account. Osteopathy 
knows that the body is an "electrical" ma- 
chine; that every part has a pure blood pipe 
running to it and an impure blood pipe run- 
ning from it; that messages are flashing out 

199 



■Mi 



from the brain over nerve threads which con- 
trol completely the calibre of these blood 
pipes as well as all other processes and parts 
of the body. Osteopathy knows that those 
same changes in the atmosphere which cause 
the mercury in the thermometer to expand, 
contract and climb up or down the glass tube 
are also working on the muscles and liga- 
ments of the body. And from these, as well as 
from slips, falls, strains, lifts, jerks, jars, 
awkward positions and a thousand other 
causes, the parts of this human "electrical" 
machine get out of their perfect relation, one 
to the other, and then the machine doesn't 
run right. 

We say it is sick. It is, in fact, simply 
out of order. Therefore, if you are sick, use 
your reason. Do not put something into your 
stomach fox a pain which is caused by a 
twisted ligament. Do not apply a liniment or 
plaster to your back for a vertebra which has 
been drawn out of alignment. Do not imag- 
ine that there is any subtle power in electric- 
ity that is able to adjust a defective joint or 
muscle. 

And again, do not imagine that your' 
rheumatism, your constipation, your dyspep- 
sia, your weakened lungs, your irregular 
heart or your defective sight or any other so- 
called disease or defect you may have is the 
result of some mystery. These all mean im- 
perfect circulation of blood, brought about by 
a disturbed relation of parts, one to the other. 
Congestion means an excess of blood in 

200 



a part and this can only follow the dilation 
of the artery which takes the pure blood 
to that part or the constriction of the vein 
which takes the impure blood from it. 
All congested conditions are cured, not 
by drugs, but by removing the pressure 
from the va so-motor nerves which control 
the calibre of the blood pipes running into 
and out of the parts. 

Remember that germs can find lodge- 
ment only in tissue which is weakened by 
excess or deficiency of blood. If germs caus- 
ed disease every child exposed would take 
diphtheria and every person who drank 
water containing typhoid germs would con- 
tract typhoid fever. But this is not the case. 
Only a small percentage of those exposed 
contract the disease. 

Your nervous system was made by God 
and made for a purpose. It is involuntary in 
its action. It is not under the control of the 
will. It never lies and it is never mistaken. 
A part slips or is drawn a hundredth part of 
an inch from its true position and, from the 
nerves which control that part, messages are 
at once sent to the brain notifying the mind 
that "something is wrong." So long as that 
part remains out of place, the nerves contin- 
ue to send the same messages. 

The intestines may, and often do, as a 
whole, fall six inches and crowd down into 
the pelvis. Would not, "Something is 
wrong" be the message sent to the brain 
from them in that condition? The kidney 

201 



may and often does, get four inches from its 
true position, when it is called a "floating 
kidney." The stomach may turn on itself 
and fall several inches. The liver may fall 
an inch or more. Eibs may be, and often are, 
drawn up or down a full half-inch from 
where they should be. A vertebra in a spinal 
curvature may be two inches from where it 
should be. A single vertebra may be a full 
fourth of an inch from its perfect position. 
Dislocated hip or shoulder bones may be two 
inches from their true position. The heart, 
liver, kidneys, spleen and certain glands may 
be greatly enlarged, disturbing surrounding 
nerves and blood pipes. So it goes through- 
out the body. The parts and organs which 
enter into its composition may be drawn or 
thrown out of their true position from the 
slightest fraction of an inch in the spine to 
six inches in the intestine. 

These statements can all be demonstrat- 
ed and proved and yet it is hard for people to 
realize that their bodies can be in the condi- 
tion we here describe unless they have been 
in a runaway, a street car collision, a railroad 
wreck, or have sustained in some way a vio- 
lent injury. Eunaways, wrecks and collisions 
do often disturb the order of the body, but 
the percentage of those whose structures and 
organs became deranged from such violent 
accidents is indeed small when compared to 
those whose derangements are due to other 
causes. Perhaps not one in a thousand, who 
are today suffering as a result of some struc- 

202 



tural defect, has ever been in a wreck or a 
collision or has sustained in any way a vio- 
lent injury. The business man says, "My 
work is all mental. I have never been injur- 
ed/ ' The business woman says, '"I have 
never been in a wreck of any kind. There is 
nothing structurally wrong with me. ' ' These 
people think that the body must always be 
perfect structurally unless it has had violent 
injury, accident or strain. They forget these 
silent forces which are ceaselessly at work on 
the body. They forget the constant changes 
in the atmosphere and the effect of these up- 
on the tissues of the body. They forget the 
terrible effects of constant positions, either 
sitting or standing. A person sits at a desk r 
his head forward, his arms forward, his 
chest cramped, the abdomen compressed; 
the entire spine is in a strained position. The 
deep structures of the neck become tense and 
hard in their effort to hold the head forward. 
The deep structures all along the spine share 
in the tension. 

These positions are assumed day after 
day, for weeks and months and years. Cer- 
tain muscles and ligaments become drawn, 
hard and tense from use. Others are scarcely 
used at all and are soft and weak. The result 
is, certain spinal joints become cramped and 
tight and certain vertebrae are drawn out of 
their true position; sometimes an eighth of 
an inch, sometimes an inch, or in curvatures 
as much as two inches or more. Yet this pro- 



203 



cess comes about so gradually that it is not 
realized at all. 

A man at forty may be so round-shoul- 
dered and humped over that his friends all 
speak to him of it. A dozen vertebrae may be 
pulled out of their true alignment, but he 
cannot believe that his spine or neck is wrong 
because he has never been injured. 

Injuries play a very small part in de- 
ranging the structures of the body when com- 
pared with those forces which we have men- 
tioned; forces which work slowly, silently. 
Therefore if sick use your reason. For what- 
ever is wrong there is a cause. Seek 
to have that cause found and removed. 

The human "electrical" machine needs 
engineering skill to put its parts in 
order. When perfect order is re-established, 
perfect health will follow. No truth is more 
firmly established than this. 

Use your reason about regaining your 
liea 1th, the same as you do about other things 
if vou would be successful. 



Jjhe Application of 
Osteopathic ^Principles 



Osteopathy's own philosophy of surgery, midwifery and 
general treatment is complete and defies refutation. — A. T. 
Still. 



The Application of Osteo- 
pathic Principles. 

By G. V. Webster, D. O. 

THE application of the principles of Os- 
teopathy to the field of therapeutics 
has demonstrated that they are emi- 
nently practical. If the Osteopath could not 
accomplish in a better way things that have 
been attempted, or could not do things which 
would otherwise be impossible, there would 
be no excuse for his existence. In the charter 
of the first osteopathic school, the purpose of 
the school is set forth as being to "improve 
our present system of surgery, obstetrics and 
the treatment of diseases generally and to 
place the same on a more rational and scien- 
tific basis.' ' That this purpose has been ful- 
filled, the practical workings of Osteopathy 
bear the evidence. 

The application of osteopathic principles 
to meet the problems of bodily disorder has 
demonstrated their efficiency in practically 
all diseases. The individual Osteopaths may 
vary in proficiency, but the principles remain 
true. Eesults depend upon the degree with 

207 



which the practice is made to approach the 
principle, Osteopathy being both an art and 
a science. 

An understanding of the field in which 
osteopathic principles are applicable may 
possibly best be gained by a review of some 
of the basic osteopathic considerations in 
several of the general classes of disease. 

Diseases of the Nervous System 

A nerve cell with its attendant fiber may 
be likened to an electrical battery with its at- 
tached wires which convey the power of the 
battery to a point of usefulness. Electricity 
may be interpreted in terms of light, heat or 
motion — all different forms of energy. Ner- 
vous impulses in the body are interpreted in 
terms of motion, secretion, sensation, nutri- 
tion, consciousness and by the special senses. 

In the case of electricity, the integrity of 
the battery, the wires and the end instru- 
ment, which evidences the impulses as light, 
heat or power, must be maintained. The bat- 
tery cell may be impaired, the wire broken or 
short circuited, or the instrument may lack 
adjustment ; in any case a failure of function 
results. With the battery, the cause of fail- 
ure may be mechanical or chemical. The 
same is true of the nerve unit. A mechanical 
interference, as by pressure, with the nerve 
cell, fiber or end organ; a chemical or vital 
change through degeneration of the nerve 
unit from exhaustion or impaired nutrition, 
may take place. Abnormal pressure is the 

208 



primary cause of impaired function in either 
case. In the first, the pressure is exerted by 
some structure out of its position upon the 
nerve cell or fiber; in the second, the pressure 
is upon the vessels carrying nutrition to the 
nerve unit. 

The Osteopath is the electrical engineer 
of the nervous system. It is his aim to pre- 
serve the integrity of the individual nerve 
cell, fiber and end organ by relieving them of 
any abnormal pressure or interference with 
their supply of nutrition. 

Of the disorders incident to nerve tis- 
sue, we may have, as has been suggested, 
those that are either functional or organic; 
each with possible resultant disturbances of 
motion, secretion, sensation, nutrition, con- 
sciousness or of the special senses.A great 
number of these cases of both classes have 
come under osteopathic observation and 
the osteopathic search for the causes of such 
diseases with the application of the principle 
of correction of structural abnormalities has 
resulted in lessening a large amount of hu- 
man suffering. 

Diseases of the Digestive System 

Of the cases which have presented them- 
selves for osteopathic examination, a large 
number have been disturbances of the di- 
gestive system. Of these a portion have re- 
sulted from some abuse of the organs of di- 
gestion by dietetic errors, in which case cor- 
rection of the errors of diet would be indicat- 

209 



ed, but most of the cases present some struc- 
tural derangement which is manifestly inter- 
fering with the functioning of the stomach, 
liver, pancreas, or intestines. 

The stomach receives an extensive nerve 
supply, partly from the pneumogastric nerve 
which leaves the cranium and passes down- 
ward to be distributed to the organs in the 
thorax and abdomen and partly from the 
nerves that leave the spinal cord and chain of 
sympathetic nervous ganglia along the spine. 
These nerves carry impulses that control the 
movement of the muscular wall of the stom- 
ach, the action of the various glands that se- 
crete the gastric juice, the quantity of blood 
that is distributed to the organ and the nu- 
trition of the organ itself; as well as sensa- 
tion to the nerve centers in the cord and 
brain. 

If motion, secretion, nutrition or sen- 
sation be impaired in the organ, the organ is 
not to be blamed. One could scarcely, with 
justice, blame the telephone if the wires 
were down. Somewhere there is a mechanical 
defect — an interference with the origin or 
transmission of the nervous impulses which 
govern these functions. A careful osteopath- 
ic search will reveal the point of interference. 
A careful physical examination, with possib- 
ly a laboratory examination of the stomach 
contents if necessary, will give the evidence 
as to the functions impaired or of any organ- 
ic trouble that may have resulted from long 
continued functional disturbances. A little 

210 



engineering skill is needed to remove the 
interference and if successfully accomplished 
the organ will go about its work without fur- 
ther hesitancy, provided that these interfer- 
ences have not been operating so long as to 
produce organic changes. Even then nothing 
could be of greater value to the suffering or- 
gan than to have its struggle for existence 
extended a helping hand by way of improved 
blood and nerve supply. 

One could supply from an outside source 
some of the deficient constituents of the gas- 
tric juice, one could knead the stomach and 
supply in a measure impaired motion, one 
could use an anodyne and relieve distressing 
sensations, but it would seem the more log- 
ical course to so put in order the bodily me- 
chanism that the constituents of the gastric 
juice would be naturally supplied in proper 
proportion, the contents of the stomach be 
churned by its own power and then with per- 
fect digestion there would be no occasion for 
annoying sensory disturbances to reach the 
consciousness. 

The functions of the other organs of di- 
gestion, the liver, the pancreas, the intes- 
tines, the colon, may likewise be impaired, 
and a long list of names have been applied to 
the various symptoms and conditions. In 
these as with the stomach, faulty diet, micro- 
organisms, etc., may play a part but analyzed 
carefully it will be found that primarily the 
cause rests in some structural abnormality 
operating to derange the blood or nerve sup- 

211 



ply of the organ or part. In diseases of 
these organs it would likewise be the logical 
thing to find and remove such an obstruction, 
whether the case be congestion of the liver, 
intestinal indigestion, appendicitis, colitis, 
constipation, dysentery or any one of the list 
of diseases of the digestive tract where the 
organic changes have not reached the stage 
of degeneration that might require operative 
interference. 

Diseases of the Respiratory System 

Under this heading may be included all 
disorders of the nose, larnyx, bronchial tubes, 
lungs and pleura whether or not accompanied 
by specific infection. Nearly all of these, it 
has been shown, are primarily due to inter- 
rupted nervous impulses. Since the nerves 
hold under their control the calibre of the 
blood vessels and so determine the quantity 
of blood distributed to a part, it is obvious 
that an interference with the vaso- motor 
nerves as they are called would result 
in either too little or too much blood 
being driven to an organ. Too much 
blood and we have a congestion; too lit- 
tle and the nourishment of the tissue 
is impaired — in either ease the vitality 
of the part is lowered. Germs, whether they 
be the germs of la grippe, pneumonia or tub- 
erculosis, find a convenient lodging place in 
tissue with lowered vitality — otherwise they 
might be destroyed, before time was given 
for them to multiply and colonize, by the 

212 



white blood corpuscles which act as little 
policemen throughout the body, arresting 
and devouring invading germs. Perfect cir- 
culation through a part would mean that 
these policemen were "covering their beat" 
with due regularity and in sufficient numbers 
to repel any ordinary invasion. 

So the osteopathic work of correcting 
any interference with the vaso-motor nerves 
to the lungs is of value in maintaining the 
normal healthy tone of the lung tissue by 
preventing congestion or faulty nutrition; 
in helping the lung to resist the invasions of 
germs and in strengthening and restoring 
to health weakened tissues. 

All diseases of the respiratory tract are 
not associated, however, with germs, but in 
all structural conditions play a large part 
and the axiom that normal structure is a pre- 
requisite of normal functioning holds true in 
disorders of the respiratory tract, whether 
the symptoms of such structural disorder 
be grouped under the name of asthma, 
hay fever, catarrh, croup, laryngismus stridu- 
lus, bronchitis or one of the acute in- 
fectious diseases. The essential point 
is to find the primary cause of the 
disease — that which is interfering with 
the normal physiological action of the 
organ or part and set about to correct the 
same, with the assurance that God made man 
a perfect being and if there is failure in 
any function there must be a cause for such 
failure. 

213 



Diseases of the Circulatory System 

The blood is the chief agent of transpor- 
tation in the body, carrying food to and the 
waste from the tissues. The organs necessary 
to maintain this transportation system com- 
prise a propelling force, the heart; avenues 
of distribution, the arteries and capillaries, 
aiso channels for the re-collection and return 
of the blood to the heart, the veins. 

Many of the diseases of the body may be 
found associated with some alteration or de- 
fect in this transportation system. "The 
reign of the artery is supreme", is the way 
the "Old Doctor " expresses it. In the con- 
sideration of the diseases of the organs of 
the circulatory system, we find disorders of 
two kinds — functional or organic. 

The heart receives nervous impulses by 
way of the pneumogastric nerve which tend 
to retard its action and from the cardiac 
sympathetic nerves which accelerate its 
action. It also has nervous ganglia within its 
muscular walls which are automatic in ac- 
tion. Variations in the rate or regularity of 
the heart's action indicate some abnormal 
nervous impulse received either over the 
pneumogastric or sympathetic nerves. These 
abnormal impulses may be purely reflex, as 
from exopthalmic goitre, anemia, acute in- 
fectious disease, dyspepsia, overwork, stimu- 
lants, poisons, pelvic disturbances, emotional 
states, etc. However, a satisfactory explana- 
tion for all functional disturbances cannot 
be found in the reflexes. The pneumogastric 

214 



and sympathetic nerves at certain points in 
their course pass in very close relation to 
some parts of the bony framework and if 
these structures are occupying other than 
their true anatomical position they may be 
the source of direct interruption to the ner- 
vous impulses that should reach the heart. 
Osteopathic clinical evidence and the evi- 
dence obtained by animal experiment go to 
show that most functional disorders of the 
heart have as a causative factor some 
displacement, however slight, of the ribs or 
vertebrae in relation with these nerves. The 
indications then in case of functional dis- 
order of the heart is to search for a possible 
reflex cause and remedy that or to locate a 
possible direct cause in some structural ab- 
normalitv of rib or vertebrae and correct 
that. 

Lesions producing cardiac neuroses may 
lead to organic disease although many other 
indirect causes are recognized. In organic 
troubles the problem presented is much more 
difficult and serious. While it would not be 
expected that the organic disease could be 
remedied, yet the work of freeing the nervous 
impulses that should reach the heart is of 
the utmost value, materially assisting the 
organ in performing its duty even though it 
is handicapped by organic changes. 

Functional disease of the blood vessels 
may result from disturbance to the vaso- 
motor nerves — the nerves to the muscular 
coat of the arteries that Osteopaths are so 

2:? 



much interested in and which have their 
origin along the spine. Organic diseases of 
the blood vessels are of the nature of degen- 
erations of varying kinds and degree 

In all cardiac or circulatory disturbances 
the work of the Osteopath is quick,safe and 
efficient, no other method of treatment oper- 
ating so in harmony with Nature's laws. 

Diseases of the Kidney 

A great deal of mystery has existed in 
the popular mind as to kidney difficulties 
and, to one unacquainted with the facts, it 
might seem that the application of the osteo- 
pathic principles for the relief of such dis- 
orders is but another addition to the mys- 
tery. 

The function of the kidney is that of 
elimination — to filter out and excrete the ex- 
cess water and waste products from the blood 
stream. This function is dependent up- 
on the integrity of the epithelial cells that 
line the little tubules of which the kidney is 
largely composed. These in turn depend for 
their health upon normal nutrition and for 
their action upon normal nerve impulses. 
The nerves that supply the kidney, controll- 
ing the distribution of blood to, and the ex- 
cretory function of the organ can be traced 
back through the solar plexus to the center 
in the spine where any abnormal structural 
pressure will interfere with their harmonious 
action. 

The evidence regarding disease of the 

216 



kidneys is obtained largely by urinalysis sup- 
plemented by a thorough physical examina- 
tion and a careful osteopathic search for 
derangements of the ribs or vertebrae near 
which pass the nerve fibers just mentioned. 
When evidence is obtained of faulty action 
of the kidney, the next important step is the 
discovery of a cause. Inasmuch as a nerve 
is with difficulty impinged while passing 
through soft tissue, it is but reasonable to 
suspect that the interference is at a point 
where it comes into more or less intimate re- 
lation with denser structures — bones or liga- 
ments. The point of interruption to the ner- 
vous impulses having been discovered in the 
faulty relations of some of the ribs or verte- 
brae, the Osteopath sets about correcting the 
same, reasoning that if structural relations 
are maintained, as Nature intended they 
should be, in all parts of the anatomy asso- 
ciated with the kidney, the organ will func- 
tion properly, provided that the degenerative 
changes in the tissues of the kidney have not 
progressed beyond repair. 

Diseases of the Pelvic Organs 

In the treatment of the diseases incident 
to the pelvic structures, Osteopathy gave the 
world an entirely new, and we believe cor- 
rect, conception of the cause and cure of 
such conditions, proving a great boon to suf- 
fering woman-kind. Long had attempts been 
made to remedy the conditions found, but 
not one word in all medical literature point- 

217 



eel toward the bony lesion as a fundamental 
cause of such conditions. It is with truth 
that Mrs. J. B. Foraker of Ohio said: " If 
Dr. A. T. Still had discovered nothing new I*, 
medical science but what he has done for 
woman, his name would go down the ages as 
the greatest physician of any age and one of 
the historical benefactors of the race." 

The pelvic organs are delicately bal- 
anced, supported by ligaments. Clothing, 
posture, habits, occupation, etc., all influence 
more or less the integrity of the supports 
and the balance of the pelvic structures, but 
with the ligaments maintaining their normal 
tone and proper tension organic displace- 
ments would not occur. The nerves which 
give tone to the ligaments and the vaso- 
motor nerves controlling the blood supply to 
the pelvic organs have their origin along the 
spine. Any structural ierangement there 
would so interfere witL <,he nerves that the 
ligaments would lose their tone, permitting 
of relaxation, and allowing gravity, or other 
forces, to carry the organs to abnormal posi- 
tions. The deranged vaso-motor nerves, 
together with the faulty position would pro- 
duce congestion which in turn might lead to 
faulty functioning, abnormal secretion, de- 
generation of tissues or tumefaction. To treat 
these conditions without correcting the pri- 
mary structural cause is but to treat the sy- 
mptoms. Permanent relief could scarcely 
be hoped for without the removal of the 
cause. The Osteopath deals largely with 

218 



causes, yet being mindful of the symptoms 
and conditions that those causes have pro- 
duced. 

There is probably no field so frequently 
invaded by the surgeon's knife as the pelvis, 
yet taken in time the great majority of these 
cases could have been saved the operation 
and the suffering that preceded it, being re- 
stored to health and comfort without the 
knife. It is with causes that we must be con- 
cerned if we would find how the conditions 
that would eventually demand an operation 
may be remedied, and it is in dealing with 
causes that Osteopathy has won its great suc- 
cess in this as in other fields of therapeutics 
and the prophylaxis. 

Speaking in this connection, Dr. Lena 
Creswell says: "Almost all of the diseases of 
the pelvic structure are curable in the begin- 
ning without the surgeon, and in truth, the 
osteopathic practice is revolutionizing mod- 
ern surgery, but even yet the number of 
women operated on for pelvic trouble 
is alarming. Many are unsexed and it 
would seem that many of these neces- 
sary operations might be prevented if 
the women of our land possessed the 
proper knowledge of the care of their 
bodies. Many cases, which were former- 
ly considered surgical, respond readily to 
this treatment but some cases, usually dating 
from parturition, must have an operation. I 
have found osteopathic treatment many 
times of great value to prepare the patient 

219 



for the operation and it frequently is neces- 
sary afterwards. 

"The science of Osteopathy does more 
than all others to revolutionize the treatment 
of the diseases of women and has advanced 
further along this line than any other me- 
thod. Osteopathic gynecology is based on 
facts. Our method is to locate the lesion that 
interferes with the blood and nerve supply 
and if possible to remove the same. We 
should feel proud of the record we have made 
in the treatment of these diseases. From year 
to year we are demonstrating a more com- 
plete method of treating the diseases of wo- 
man-kind." 

Diseases of the Skin 

A class of diseases that at first thought 
might seem beyond the reach of osteopathic 
measures are affections of the skin. The 
skin exercises protective, absorptive and ex- 
cretory functions. Overburdening any one 
of these functions may result in disease. The 
protective function may be overburdened, as 
by germs or parasites; the absorptive, as by 
chemicals and the excretory as by the defec- 
tive action of one of the other organs of elim- 
ination. 

Such disorders may be divided into twc 
genet al classes with reference to causes; ex 
tonal or internal Both may be combined 
Of the external causes, probably germs are 
frequently a direct cause. To remove the 
cause, remove the germs, which may be ac~ 

220 



complisked by the application of a germicide. 
This alone is required; the reconstructive for- 
ces of the body restoring the surface to nor- 
mal as soon as the cause is removed. Of the 
internal causes, those tracable to some disor 
der of nutrition, metabolism or elimination 
predominate. In the search for the cause, it 
often resolves itself step by step back to 
some structural abnormality interfering 
with one or more of the organs concerned 
with the constructive or eliminative forces 
of the body. In connection with this class, 
purely osteopathic work is of distinct thera- 
peutic value, as has been shown by the cases 
of eczema, for instance, which have yielded 
to osteopathic work applied to the correction 
of the nerve and blood supply to the liver 
and pancreas after various other means for 
relief had been unsuccessfully tried. 

Acute Infectious Diseases 

The invasion of the human body by 
pathogenic micro-organisms gives rise to 
what are known as the acute infectious dis- 
eases, such as typhoid fever, scarlet fever, 
measles, influenza, etc. The battle is waged 
between the invading germs and the powers 
of resistance inherent in the body. On the 
one hand, the germs seek to destroy the 
harmony of the bodily functions by the pro- 
duction of poisons that spell death to the tis- 
sues; on the other hand, the body manufac- 
tures an "anti" poison which neutralizes 
the poison produced by the germ and permits 

221 



the white blood corpuscles to destroy the in- 
vaders or, at least, restrict their operations. 
The question is, Which shall prevail? Once 
started, it is might that prevails. 

The physician should ally himself 
with the forces of resistance and his problem 
is how best to assist the body in its effort to 
overcome the germs and the effects of their 
poisons. The forces of the body are capable 
of making the necessary resistance provided 
that there is no obstruction to their perfect 
operation. No obstruction means unimpeded 
circulation in all parts and no interference 
with the nerve supply to the organs whose 
function is the manufacture of the "anti" 
poisons, or to the organs of elimination. The 
effort has been made to produce some of 
these "anti" substances in the bodies of 
animals and then appropriate the "antis" 
thus obtained for use in the defense of the 
human organism. This is not of the nature 
of a drug but rather of the nature of an anti- 
dote for poison — the poison produced by the 
germ — and as such their use is not at direct 
variance with osteopathic theories, although 
it has been repeatedly demonstrated that the 
body in perfect health will provide from its 
own laboratories sufficient of the i i anti ' ' sub- 
stance to neutralize the toxins produced by 
the germs, making the use of such ' anti ' Sub- 
stances superfluous. An instance of this is 
frequently found where a person may not be 
infected although repeatedly exposed to the 
germs of measles, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, 

222 



etc. The reason that these cases of immunity 
are not more numerous is because so few peo- 
ple are in absolutely perfect health. 

Any means that will assist the organs of 
defense is of value. The Osteopath by open- 
ing every channel of operation for the fight- 
ing forces of the body materially assists in 
the checking or repulsion of the invading 
germs, in the production of germicidal prop- 
erties in the blood and in the elimination of 
the poisons from the system. Any other poi- 
son or drug entering the system at the time 
of the invasion but increases the burden of 
poisons to be neutralized or eliminated. 

Diseases of the Eye and Ear 

The eye and ear are organs of special 
sense. The eye is formed to receive waves of 
light and convey the impressions received to 
the mind. The ear is formed to receive waves 
of sound and convey and interpret them to 
the consciousness. Both organs are located 
in the cranium and nearly surrounded by 
firm bony walls. How then can osteopathic 
work be of value to disordered organs so 
deeply situated in bony cavities? With the 
eye or ear directly the Osteopath does very 
little, yet in the treatment of diseases of 
these organs Osteopathy has achieved some 
of its most remarkable results. 

Tracing the sympathetic nerve fibers of 
the eye backward toward their origin, the an- 
atomist and physiologist have found that 
some of these nerve fibers having their nuc- 

223 



lens of origin near the base of the brain pass 
downward through the spinal cord to the 
level of the upper dorsal spine, i. e., between 
the shoulders where they leave the cord and, 
passing out between the vertebrae, join the 
chain of sympathetic nervous ganglia that 
are situated just in front of the vertebrae 
and lead upward through these ganglia and 
their connections and are finally distributed 
to the eye. This is a very roundabout way for 
the nervous impulses to travel in reaching 
the eye yet such is the course they follow. 
The eye has other nerves more direct in ac- 
tion controlling its motion and some of the 
other functions, but those just mentioned be- 
ing the sympathetic, control the involuntary 
muscles within the eye itself, the calibre of 
the blood vessels to the e^e and so the nutri- 
tion to each individual cell that goes to make 
up the delicate organ. Any irritation or in- 
terference with this sympathetic nerve 
would result in disturbances that might pro- 
duce disease and impair the vision. It is not 
claimed that all eye disorders are amenable 
to osteopathic treatment, yet the application 
of the osteopathic principle of correcting all 
structural deviations, such as slightly mis- 
placed vertebrae in the neck, has resulted in 
so freeing the interrupted nervous impulses 
that frequently all the resultant symptoms 
manifest in the eye were relieved. 

It could scarcely be expected that in this 
brief article mention could be made of all the 
symptoms and diseases of the eye that have 

224 



been benefited or cured by osteopathic cor- 
rective measures applied to the structures in 
relation with the sympathetic nerves to the 
eye, for well authenticated case reports of 
eye benefits are numerous in osteopathic lit- 
erature. It is sufficient to state that the prac- 
tice of finding what is wrong and fixing it, 
leaving Nature to mother the eye as she alone 
can, has resulted in demonstrating in eye 
troubles what a truly wonderful mother Na- 
ture is when unhampered in her work. 

With the ear, the osteopathic control 
over the pathological conditions is largely 
through the vaso-motor nerves that govern 
the amount of blood distributed to the parts 
or to some structural condition impinging 
directly upon the return circulation from the 
ear, in either case the circulatory disturb- 
ances result in lowered vitality, impaired 
function and possibly an invasion by micro- 
organisms. In certain cases of deafness, the 
circulation, and through the circulation the 
other functions of the ear, have been so re- 
stored by osteopathic means that every trace 
of the impaired hearing has disappeared. 

To find what is interfering with the 
normal physiological processes of the body 
and if possible correct the same — that is the 
Osteopath 's mission in dealing with disorders 
of the organs of special sense as with the oth- 

Constitutional Diseases 

Constitutional diseases are those that 

225 



pervade the whole system, such as chronic 
rheumatism, gout, diabetes, scurvey, rickets, 
etc., and are due to some break in the chain 
of events that govern the constructive or 
eliminative forces of the body. The character 
of the food itself may be faulty or one or more 
of the organs that are concerned in the pre- 
paration of the food elements for final use 
in the body as bone, gland, muscle, etc., lag 
in performing their functions, or some of the 
organs whose duty it is to dispose of the 
ashes of the bodily fires, the waste material, 
fail in their physiological duty and the re- 
sult is general or constitutional disorder. 

To find where the broken link in the 
chain may be is the duty of the physician. 
To the Osteopath, the conditions presented 
by the symptoms of constitutional disease 
would point aside from dietetic errors to an 
interruption to the nerve supply to one or 
more of the organs that gave evidence of 
failure of function. The location of the me- 
chanical cause for such interruption and the 
correction of the same permits again the 
movement of the constructive and elimina- 
tive forces of the body in an unbroken cycle, 
provided that the wheel of life has not been 
too greatly damaged by the weakened link 
having existed too long. 

Finally 

Osteopathy is not a cure-all. There are 
disorders that are incurable; there are dis- 
eases which need surgical attention; an an- 

225 



esthetic is a necessity; a parasite requires an 
antiseptic; a poison demands an antidote. 
There are considerations other than me- 
chanical adjustment having to do with 
the environment affecting the relative 
proportions in quantity and quality of the 
life essentials, food, air, water, rest, pro- 
tection, cleanliness, physical and mental 
exercise, etc., — all of which enter into 
consideration in the problem of protect- 
ing the body from disease. Yet per- 
fection of bodily structure must be 
maintained and it is the duty of the physi- 
cian to assist in such maintenance while giv- 
ing proper attention to the environment. 
Life forces he cannot give; tissue he cannot 
manufacture; tissue builders, except in the 
form of food, he cannot furnish, discretion 
that will maintain a proper environment is 
with difficulty imparted ; yet structural per- 
fection he can help to maintain: that accomp- 
lished, Nature — the Mother of All — with In- 
finite wisdom maintains in functional har- 
mony the body which she created and man's 
responsibility ceases. 



JWr Snteresting Cases 



Use no man's opinion, accept his works only. — A. T. Still. 



Mind Development. 

{Reprinted by permission from the New York Times.) 
May, 29, 1905. 

JOHN Harry was one of the confirmation 
class yesterday in the Little Church 
Around the Corner. The Rev. Dr. 
Geo. C. Houghton stood sponsor for John 
Harry's right to become one of the Episcopal 
faith. Bishop Greer officiated. Of all the 
parents and relatives of the members of Dr. 
Houghton's confirmation class, none rejoiced 
more in the services than did the father and 
mother of John Harry. The mind of their 
sixteen year-old-son had passed in three 
months from that of a child to that of a ma- 
ture person. He could reason and believe as 
they did and had been adjudged competent 
for confirmation in the church of which they 
had been members for many years. They 
thought it almost a miracle. 

John was born in England. John has 
been simple minded. His father and mother 
prayed nightly for an awakening of his intel- 
ligence, but there seemed to be no response to 
their supplications. Their faith did not fail 
however and they continued to pray. 

As the years passed their boy grew in 

231 



stature and strength but his mind did not 
waken. He could articulate only a few words 
and did not comprehend much that was said 
to him. His usual answer to a question was a 
vacant smile. He went regularly to Sunday 
School. He was obedient and kindly, but it 
was evident that he had only a hazy notion 
of what was said. He could not read, but he 
could sit still, smiling gratefully when the 
teacher spoke to him or when one of the oth- 
er scholars would share a book or leaflet 
with him. 

No place pleased him so well as the Sun- 
day School unless it was his father's stable. 
The animals seemed to understand him and 
love him as the children did in the Sunday 
School, but he shunned strange grown-ups. 

Dr. Houghton took a deep interest in 
the boy who was so gentle and patient. 
About three months ago, the clergyman call- 
ed the attention of his own physician, Dr. 
E. W. S. Howard, to the boy. The doctor is 
an Osteopath. After an examination, the 
doctor declared the boy was not an epileptic; 
his disorder was due to a lack of circulation 
of blood in the brain. The intellect was dor- 
mant and the boy in a state of torpor in all 
but his physical life. 

The physican thought that osteopathic 
treatment would awaken the boy's mind. Dr. 
Houghton invited him to take the boy as a 
patient. Dr. Howard consented and the boy 
has been treated regularly since with re- 
markable results. 

232 



Dr. Houghton said last night when asked 
how it happened that the boy had passed in 
three months from practical infancy to ma- 
turity so he could be deemed competent for 
confirmation: 

"It is all true and remarkably wonder- 
ful. I believe it to be an act of God using the 
physician as the instrument of His will. I 
never heard Jack utter a word until recently. 
He would just grin at any question and 
would never volunteer a remark. The doctor 
gave him osteopathic treatment and his 
mind woke up. 

"I went to see the boy at his home a few 
weeks ago. They told me he could recite the 
Ten Commandments and the Apostles ' Creed. 
Jack was seated near the window looking out 
In the corner of the room were two of his 
dogs. They seemed to resent my coming and 
walked out with an air of indignation at my 
presence. 

' ' After I had talked with him a long time 
I asked him what had been in the room when 
I came in and he said the two dogs that had 
walked out. I asked him what he had seen on 
Fifth Ave., where he had been walking that 
afternoon, and he gave me a perfectly intelli- 
gent and interesting account of his observa- 
tions. 

"He told me of his studies, how he was 
learning to read and of the many things that 
were of interest to him since his mind had 
awakened. He knew his Catechism and all 
the essentials of his church life perfectly. He 

233 



was bright and alert, filled with curiosity 
about the world which had been opened to 
his understanding, innocent like a child and 
eager to learn. It is one of the most re- 
markable cases in my experience. ' ' 

Great care is being taken not to over- 
burden the boy's mind, but this is difficult 
because he is intent on catching up with the 
mental development of the other children he 
knows. He learned his alphabet in a singu- 
larly short time and can now spell most of the 
ordinary words. He remembers a good deal 
of his past, particularly his old time friends. 
He delights in meeting the children who were 
kind to him and has not lost his fondness for 
his animal friends. The dread of music he 
formerly had is gone, and he finds delight in 
it. His mental development is being watched 
with the keenest interest, particularly by Dr. 
Howard. 



Blindness. 

By H. S. Bunting, A. B., M. S., D. O. 

{Reprinted by permission from Osteopathy Health.') 
July, 1006. 

ONE of our most eminent practitioners, a 
resident of Chicago, owes his sight and 
usefulness to a remarkable osteopathic 
cure. While a student at the University of 
Wisconsin preparing to take up medicine, he 
was injured by playing ball, being hit in the 
back of the neck by the ball while running 
first base. Within ten days eye injury began 
to manifest itself although not then attribut- 
ed to the accident in any way. After four 
months, the young man had grown almost 
totally blind. The best physicians of Mil- 
waukee pronounced the case optic nerve 
atrophy and said cure by any means was im- 
possible. Osteopathy was then in its begin- 
ning and one of the first pioneers to leave 
Kirksville to practice was in the little 
town of Eed Wing, Minn. Thither went the 
student after orthodox medicine had given 
up his case, much as the traditional drown- 
ing man will grasp at every chance straw. 
Within two weeks, he noticed improvement. 
Within a month, he felt he would probably 

235 



get back sight after all. Within eight months 
he was well — absolutely free from eye troub- 
les. 

This gentleman went at once to Kirks- 
ville, enrolled as student, became a professor 
after graduation, later entered practice and 
is today engaged in carrying on valuable re- 
search work in proof of osteopathic therap- 
eutics and in many ways is the leading mem- 
ber of his profession. Adjusting a slight dis- 
placement of his neck vertebrae, as Osteo- 
pathy alone can do it, cured him of optic 
atrophy. He also in his time has been the 
means of helping a great multitude of people 
to escape their physical infirmities. 



Pernicious Hiccoughs 

By Joseph H. Sullivan, D. O. 

{Reprinted by permission from the Osteopathy Physician. ,) 
March, 1910 

MRS.— operated on Feb. 12th, 1910 at St. 
Luke's Hospital, Chicago. Operation 
a hysterectomy. 

Upon regaining consciousness, the pa- 
tient was seized with singultus, hiccough 
spasms, occurring at intervals of ten seconds. 
Began hiccoughing Saturday noon and con- 
tinued without cessation until Monday noon, 
forty eight hours in all. All usual and unus- 
ual steps were taken to relieve the trouble. 

Faradization to spine and to right and 
left sides. 

Sipping of carbonized water. 

Holding the breath. 

Pressure on stomach with the hands. 

Hot and cold gastric compress. 

Ice bags to back of neck. 

Ice pills. Ice bag to epigastrium. 

Hot trunk pack. 

Lavage, sulfonal, codein, morphine. 

The general trend of treatment was in 
some way to offset the shock of the operation. 
They based their efforts on the idea that 
the trouble was reflex or perhaps hysteria 
figured in some measure. 

237 



I was called in on the case by the patient 
herself; she having had knowledge of Osteo- 
pathy some years previously. 

I found the patient in a semi-coma, due 
to opiates; pulse very thready, exhaustion 
apparent to all present. Spasms occurred 
about every ten seconds, and had become of 
a character very exhaustive to the patient as 
well as painful to those in attendance. The 
spasms were of a character which to the Os- 
teopath demonstrated contractions along the 
cervical area. 

Assiduous attention in all the above 
named area finally achieved the end desired. 
The patient suddenly lapsed into a complete 
state of muscular laxity. I have never before 
witnessed such response to osteopathic work. 
The whole thoracic and cervical muscular 
systems suddenly relaxed and the hiccough- 
ing ceased the moment I relieved pressure at 
the point of lesion, and it is apropos at this 
point to state that no bony displacement 
existed but rather a deep -contracture adja- 
cent to the bones was evident, indicating nar- 
rowed foramina between the bones. 

It is reasonable to suppose that under 
an anesthesia the patient while being trans- 
ferred from the operating table to the bed 
was so handled as to allow the head to hang 
or rotate improperly. This appears the most 
reasonable cause for the condition existing 
and those of osteopathic faith will so reason. 

The patient has had no recurrence of hic- 
coughs. 



Pachymeningitis. 

By L. A. Bumstead, D. O. 

(Reprinted from the Bulletin of the Atlas and Axis Clubs.) 
April, 1909. 

THE following is the report of a case of 
Pacliy meningitis External which was 
cured by Osteopathy after fifteen med- 
ical doctors, electrical apparatus, and in fact 
everything but Osteopathy had been tried 
and failed completely. The patient, a girl of 
ten years of age, had the following history: 

In April, 1907, while recovering from an 
attack of pneumonia, the child fell and imme- 
diately complained of pain in the lower part 
of the back and of numbness in the legs. The 
family doctor prescribed medicine, which 
1 ' would have her out in three days, ' ' but in- 
stead, the child grew worse and remained in 
bed until after receiving osteopathic treat- 
ment. From the date of the injury until Nov. 
28th, 1908, her treatment was entirely medi- 
cal, excepting six weeks of electrical treat- 
ment, given at Grant Hospital, Columbus, 
Ohio. 

At the time of my first visit I found her 

239 



lying, by the doctor's orders, on a hard 
board covered with a blanket. She was fear- 
fully emaciated, unconscious, moaning, evi- 
dently from the pain in the spine, kidneys 
not acting, all of the flexor muscles of the 
body tense, the thumbs so tightly clasped by 
the fingers that the hand could not be opened, 
the arms drawn up to the chest and the legs 
drawn up so that the heels were tightly pres- 
sed against the hips, the spine flexed and the 
head retracted, bloody and foul smelling 
sputum constantly flowing from the mouth, 
pupils dilated and unresponsive to light. No 
food had been given, by the mouth, for seven 
weeks. Eectal feeding of olive oil and milk 
had been administered. 

On December 12, 1908, the parents of the 
child brought her from her home, fourteen 
miles in the country, to Delaware and en- 
deavored to place her in the county hospital 
under my care. Admission was refused on 
the grounds that a patient in her desperate 
condition should be in the care of a "com- 
petent surgeon" and only on such conditions 
would they receive her into the hospital. The 
girl was placed in a private home and the 
mother remained with her and together we 
pulled her through to complete recovery. 

The lesions found were of the left innom- 
inate, third lumbar and fifth dorsal vertebrae. 
These were the most prominent lesions and 
results showed them to be the ones respon- 
sible for her disability. December 18th the 
first sign of returning consciousness was 

240 



shown by a slight nodding of the head in re- 
ply to a question. In a few days hunger came 
and very small quantities of liquid food were 
given at frequent intervals. Very soon the 
patient became ravenously hungry and the 
strength of mind and body grew rapidly. 
Great care was exercised in feeding the pa- 
tient during convalescence. The flow of sput- 
um gradually disappeared, but the teeth were 
loose and she showed all the signs of severe 
salivation. Steady improvement continued 
under daily treatments until February 17th, 
when I discontinued treatment, but kept the 
patient in town for a month under observa- 
tion, but no relapse occurred. The only com- 
plication during convalescence was fever 
from alveolar abscesses and tachycardia 
which was, doubtless, due to the great rapid- 
ity with which the child grew and accumulat- 
ed flesh. The limbs gradually straightened 
out and locomotion became normal. 

This case is one of the best examples of 
the success of specific osteopathic treatment 
I have ever seen. My treatment was confined 
to the lesions and at no time did I treat more 
than two minutes, except when trying to 
straighten the limbs in the later stage of the 
case. Improvement was marked after reduc- 
tion of the fifth dorsal lesion. The spinal ten- 
derness entirely disappeared and at the pres- 



241 



ent writing the child is entirely normal in 
mind and body. 

The previous diagnosis of the case was 
1 i Deep soreness of the spine." Pachymenin- 
gitis Externa seemed to me to be the best 
name to give the disease, but as the "Old 
Doctor' ' says, the name is not the important 
thing. l ' Find it, fix it and leave it alone. ' ' 



'Out of the shadow or the night, 
The world moves into light, 
It is daybreak everywhere-" — Unknown. 



LB Mr 'I 



1 



Mragfiga aiaratti^^ 




